


Hawk and Wolf: Bounty Hunters for Hire

by gwmclintock88



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, Gen, Prompt Fic, fem harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-11 08:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5619730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwmclintock88/pseuds/gwmclintock88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hawk and Wolf just finished one job and immediately picked up another one that wasn't so much a job but more as cashing in a favor for a pair of Jedi.  This job was going to lead them to Naboo, the start of a war, and their journey home. </p><p>For Hawk and Wolf, this was just another job. For Hermione and Jenna, this was their chance to return to the ones they left behind.</p><p>(Fem!Harry; H/HR; spoilers for SW:TPM and HP:OotP).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Endings and Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story that started as a prompt fill for whitetigerwolf's challenge: [Bounty Hunters](https://www.fanfiction.net/topic/83467/73833717/1/Bounty-Hunter-Challenge-Harry-Potter). I have expanded and changed quite a bit, as I believe the specified prompt was to go to the Wild West. I missed that mark by a few thousand millennium. 
> 
> This is a Harry Potter - Star Wars Cross over, taking place at the beginning of Episode One. I am taking quite a few liberties with the plots for both stories, but I am going to try and be faithful to the universes in general. If there are any problems, please let me know. 
> 
> In full disclosure, Harry is female in this story, and the relationship is Harry/Hermione, so femslash.

            Hawk checked her blaster, mentally reviewing the mechanical parts as she tapped a nameless rhythm upon it. She finished the review and moved onto other things in her mind, including reviewing her current predicament. A predicament shared with her partner-in-crime.

            Somehow, almost five years ago, she’d been sent to somewhere else, somewhere far, far away. From what she could surmise, it wasn’t their galaxy, and definitely not something she needed to think about without copious amounts of alcohol. They arrived on Nar Shaddaa, a planet equivalent to Knockturn Alley and Las Vegas wrapped into one. They only survived due to the timely invention of a Jedi and his Padawan.

            That was another strange thing: Jedi accessed the Force, or at least were formally trained to do so. She and her partner could as well, though it seemed the closest thing to magic this galaxy may ever experience. Not without their wands, of course, but a few days spent in one of the best libraries she’d ever seen ended with some basic knowledge of what this galaxy was, who the Jedi were, and what they could do to survive, including what the Force was The only question she couldn’t answer was how they ended up here.

            The last thought she had before waking up on Nar Shaddaa was of the battle in the second Ministry, and of somehow being struck down by this bolt of purple. What felt like moments later, she woke to the alien grumblings in languages she couldn’t comprehend. Her screams alerted the Jedi, who rushed over to their side. Or rather, tried to. The crowd was too thick, even for their powers (and they didn’t have their wands), and Hawk thought they would be dead, or worse, in moments had Wolf not woken then.

            Her scream echoed through the crowded walkway. Hawk felt the shudder of magic pass through her. She crawled over to Wolf’s side, ignoring the pain radiating from her chest and held her best friend tightly to her. The Jedi arrived, and the rest, well became history.

            “Ready?” Hawk looked up to see her partner swaying over to her, hips swinging back and forth despite the heavy armor. She’d known what those hips looked like underneath well enough to finish mentally undressing her partner. It hadn’t been her plan to sleep with her partner, but after one mission too many and one drink too many (despite their age), she finally broke that last wall and spoke from her heart.

            That was nearly five years ago, and now, Wolf stood just over a meter and a half, well below Hawk’s own meter and three-quarters. While Wolf’s black mane hung down past her shoulders, Hawk trimmed her once bushy locks into pixie cut (though a few strands managed to be unruly). While she filled out to a little bit more than a B-cup, Wolf seemed astonished with her C-cup breasts (not that this galaxy used the same measurements, but she did the math). They were a lovely pair too, and Hawk spent hours worshiping them during the cold nights, much to their mutual satisfaction. And despite a few fights along the way, they still were best friends, now that title included partners (and then some).

            “Of course,” Hawk said. She slipped the blaster back into her holder. Harry flashed her a smile and tossed her a PADD. “Everything taken care of, Wolf?”

            “‘Nother couple hundred thousand credits,” Wolf said, her lips smiling wide to show her teeth. “You got us our next head?”

            Hawk smiled to herself as she reviewed the receipt. Everything appeared in order. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Wolf. It was the Bounty Board she didn’t trust, and she’d rather not have to deal with Wolf blasting her way through the local office again.

            “Yes, and it’s not so much a mission as returning a favor,” Hawk said as she slipped the PADD into her belt. Wolf arched an eyebrow, her bright green eyes drawing her attention away from the hanger. They were asked to meet here, and they’d be traveling in the employers’ ship.

            “What favors? You know I don’t like owing anyone,” Wolf whined, pouting her lips. Hawk leaned forward, kissing her gently and distracting her from thinking any more about favors. Wolf moaned into the contact, wrapping her arms around her waist to lean into her fully.  A warmth filled her, building up through her. She tightened her grip, pulling Wolf up to her. She willed herself not to tug at Wolf’s armor to reach the warm flesh hidden from her roaming hands. One hand wrapped around her neck, the other reach down to play with Wolf’s belt.

            A cough broke their kiss and stopped her from getting them cited for indecent exposure again. Wolf whined again, nuzzling her neck much like her namesake. Hawk turned to see the two men, one a great deal older than any of them – the master – and the other about their again – the padawan. “Master Jinn, Padawan Kenobi.” Hawk smiled widely at them, not ashamed of their situation.

            “This will not happen often during our mission, will it?” Jinn asked, arching an eyebrow at them. She caught the silent laughter in his eyes as she shrugged her shoulders.

            Wolf finally stepped back to turn back look at Kenobi. She bounded over to him, stopping less than a third of a meter from him, well within grasping distance. The two stared at each other, glaring almost before Wolf cracked a smile first. She threw her arms over him, receiving a tight hug that pulled her up off the floor.

            Hawk smiled at the display. Despite being completely different, Wolf connected with Kenobi. Both felt a burden of their position, and even if they never trained in the ways of the Force, Wolf enjoyed how the Padawan explained the Force. Wolf slowly began to seek the big picture, mediating to calm the storm inside of her. Hawk found her magic fell more along Jinn’s perspective: she now focused on the now and how fast it could change. Her magic responded accordingly, seeking the quick changes and following their prey.

            “You are all set?” Jinn asked. “And thank you again for joining us. I do not expect much trouble, but -”

            “Something is off,” Hawk said, brushing a short brown lock out of her eye-sight. Kenobi finally let Wolf, wide smiles on both of their faces. “Wolf said as much on our return trip.”

            “A successful bounty I’m sure.” A small smirk appeared on Jinn’s lips. Hawk nodded, though since becoming hunters they rarely failed to bring in their prey. “We were lucky you were available to assist us.”

            “Like we’d turn you down,” Wolf said as she came back to Hawk’s side. “So, where are we headed?” Jinn removed the holodisk and held it out to Hawk. She took it and began to survey the relevant information with Wolf reading over her shoulder.

            “We’re heading to Naboo to aid in the negotiation between the Trade Federation and the planet.” Jinn started to explain but Wolf waved him off.

            “If you need our help, then you’re expecting trouble,” she said. She removed the disk from Hawk’s hands and slipped it into the same pouch as she placed the padd into earlier. “And if you’re expecting trouble, it isn’t something that you want to deal with on your own. Not that you Jedi wouldn’t be able to, but having two licensed bounty hunters should help to smooth any outside threats without revealing you’re Jedi yet.”

            “Plus, you have more eyes on the lookout,” Hawk said. She turned toward the waiting ship. “Shall we?”

            “Please, before you give my Master a heart attack,” Kenobi said, smiling lightly at their antics. Despite being more rigid than his master in most things, Wolf and Hawk managed to get Kenobi to begin to relax in his perceptions of the code, and in turn, his perspective of life. It helped they could still use the Force despite not being Jedi or trained within the Temple. But their background in magic opened them to the Force, let them balance their emotions and the power they could unleash without giving into the darkness inside everything.

            Hawk breathed deeply, feeling the Force flow around her. Changes were on the wind. Spreading her wings, she tried to ride the currents, predict where they could go next. A storm was on the horizon. She felt the shifts in her bones. More than that, their time here was coming to an end, just like Wolf said it would eventually. She caught her partner’s eye, and gave her a short nod.

            They would be going home soon, for better or worse.


	2. Safe Landings

            Obi-Wan spent most of the flight through hyperspace in mediation. Since leaving Corsuscant, a bad feeling settled into him. He focused his emotions into the Force, releasing the fear that accompanied the feeling. Beyond the anxiety accompanying the ‘feeling,’ there was little he could identify about it, though Hawk’s comment about a storm felt apropos.

            The Force felt different since meeting with Hawk and Wolf, though they went by different names at the time. Their initial duty of assisting the pair was superseded by the strong presence in the force, particularly in Wolf. After saving them from a slaver gang on Nar Shaddaa, Qui-Gon brought them back to Corsuscant to meet with the council. Over the course of several weeks, Hawk and Wolf explained their situation and the Jedi, particularly Obi-Wan and other padawans helped the pair adjust to a new galaxy. Both were quiet, conferring in hushed tones before speaking out about some topic. While Hawk dove into the library with a passion, Wolf followed Obi-Wan around for the most part. 

            During that time, Obi-Wan explained two perspectives of the force: the Living and the Unifying. Whereas his Master was a student of the Living Force, following the changes and the here, Obi-Wan was a student of the Unifying Force.  The Living Force flows through everyone, connecting every living being to one another. Mindful of the future, students of the Living Force were solidified in the present, focusing on how things could and might change in the immediate future. This mindfulness helped them avoid temptation, though it was no guarantee.

            The Unifying Force connected everything, dark and light side. Regardless of one’s emotions, the students of this school focused on fulfilling the possibilities of the future. Some referred to this as destiny, while the students believed it simply was the will of the Force. With the connection of the dark side, falling to temptation was more than a potential. Master Yoda spoke with Obi-Wan at length as he began to study the Unifying Force. The Force was powerful, and glimpsing at its power could tempt even the strongest of hearts, and humble even the strongest of men.

            For Obi-Wan, every time he fell into the Force, he felt the humbleness surround him. The galaxy was vast, but the Force was immense.  A cosmic connection with everything and he was offered a mere glimpse of its beauty. It was this beauty that he helped Wolf learn to see.

            When he first met her, anger and despair filled the girl. Wolf’s power fed upon those feelings, and had someone else found them first, maybe she would have fallen to the Dark Side. If anyone else experienced a similar emotional upheaval, Obi-Wan wondered if they could cope. No Jedi would be able to, at least currently. The Dark Side grew more tempting as one became more fearful or angry with the world. Except she was already aware of those temptations, cautioning herself in every action and reaction. Hawk stabilized her to a point, but eventually Wolf found herself releasing those emotions into the Force in much the same way as the Jedi were taught. Despite the Council’s caution, he followed his Master’s impetus for once and began to slowly introduce Wolf to meditation. While Hawk spent hours in the Council’s libraries, combing through recent and archaic histories, Wolf spent the time either training with a practice saber or in the Room of a Thousand Fountains.

            The pair spent nearly three months there, learning what they could of their new galaxy. The Jedi in turn learned gathered what information they could of the planet Earth and the magic both Hawk and Wolf possessed. Wolf cautiously spoke of her abilities and Hawk nearly refused to offer any information, only providing them it when threatened with removal from the libraries. In hindsight, it was the threat from the Council that drove the pair away.

            Obi-Wan remained in contact with them as best as he could over the years. He filed away their exploits, or at least the ones he could find. With both of them becoming bounty hunters, most of their missions would never make the holo-net, but there always were tales of the extraordinary things that occurred. Things normally attributed to Jedi. If you knew where to look, and his Master taught him to look beyond the surface, then it was easier to find out about his friends.

            This was their first formal mission together since meeting them, and both had grown into fine young woman. He kept his gaze from lingering, especially when the two engaged in any amorous activity (which admittedly was quite often it seemed). Still, his eyes wandered over them at times. Wolf stood far shorter than him, while Hawk was about his height. Their armor covered their bodies, and since leaving Corsuscant, he never saw them without it.  It was only the cloth-covered bodies of his youth that he remembered, but the armor hugged their now grown forms very well. He pushed aside youthful fantasies about them, knowing both the Jedi Code and their faithfulness to each other.

            “We will be arriving shortly.” Wolf’s words broke his mediation. He glanced up to see the shorter girl standing in the doorway, dressed for battle. Much as his lightsaber remained at his side at all times, so did her dual blasters.

            “Thank you,” he said, rising from his kneeling position. “Any word from Naboo?”

            “Only that we are to proceed to the orbiting station,” Wolf said with a shrug.

            Obi-Wan paused as he moved to the doorway. “You feel it too, don’t you?”

            “Something’s off,” she said. She hugged her torso, glancing back over her shoulder into the hallway. He nodded his agreement before ushering her out.

            Despite spending most of his mediation contemplating the past, the Force was trying to tell him something. A darkness subtly crept along their path. It followed them and pull them toward its goals. The motivation and outcomes were still unclear, but Wolf summed it up perfectly: Something was off.

            Their ship docked without much fanfare, and a protocol droid greeted them in the hanger. Wolf and Hawk both donned their helmets, the armor concealing their features and protecting them. Images of their namesakes were painted upon them aided in creating an intimidating facade. The wolf’s white teeth stood out against the dark fur that covered most of the helmet. Except for a white slash along the forehead and the emerald eyes that bore into observers, the helmet could perfectly conceal Wolf in the dark. Hawk’s helmet pushed forward, dipping slightly in front of her chestplate as if the beak of a bird. Sharp eyes caught everything, twisting to stare down its prey.

The bounty hunters’ presence would upset most, but in the company of the Jedi it left the Trade Federation no doubt as to who was conducting the negotiation, as the Jedi robes openly shared their allegiance. The armor, as was the case for most bounty hunters, conversely concealed the pair’s, leaving them free to find work wherever they could.

            “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Obi-Wan said as they were lead into a waiting room. Wordless glances were shared between the bounty hunters.

            “I sense nothing,” Qui-Gon said.

“It’s there,” Wolf said, her voice distorted by her helmet. “Something is out there, reaching for us.”

“You sure?” Hawk asked. She removed her blaster reflexively, checking the components before slipping it back into the holster.

“I – yes, I’m sure,” Wolf said, nodding as if to confirm her own thoughts.

            “You mustn’t center on your anxieties,” Qui-Gon tried to coach them.

            Hawk snorted. “I’ve learned to trust those anxieties, Master Jedi. So if it’s alright, we’ll remain on edge for the moment.”

            Qui-Gon nodded at the statement. The bounty hunters were there to assist, and in this case, being Force sensitive aided them even further. While both he and Qui-Gon would feel the danger approaching before it arrived, the bounty hunters could openly act in defense of them without starting an inter-galactic incident. After all, they were ‘hired’ to protect the Jedi. As legal fiction went, it was a stretch, but Obi-Wan wondered if his Master sensed something else that necessitated their presence.

            “Be mindful of the living Force, my young Padawan,” Qui-Gon said to him as they moved to stand before the window. The warning wasn’t unexpected given the ominous feeling encompassing him at the moment. His master often coached him to be aware of the ever changing present. Something could happen and shift the balance within the Force, changing that feeling. This time, it felt almost solid, like years of preparation finally coming together in a few master strokes.  

Following his master’s advice, Obi-Wan turned his attention to the planet. He’d never been to Naboo, and the cultural information on the planet only provided so much. Beyond knowing that Naboo consisted of two races, the Naboo and the Gungan, little of . The bountiful planet supplied both with more than their need, and while the Gungans lived easily under the surface of the vast oceans, the Naboo openly welcomed those in need and sent aid to those they could.

            Obi-Wan kept his gaze on the planet as he responded. “Yes, Master.”

            They waited in silence. Hawk and Wolf took up positions by the door while Qui-Gon finally moved to seat. Obi-Wan joined him after a short while, finding the planet enthralling. They’d been on dozens of missions before, most of them never involving the threat of violence let alone the need to draw their lightsabers. His fingers brushed the elegant weapon.

            The lightsaber acted as a Jedi’s conduit through the Force in battle, allowing them to enhance their abilities. They moved quicker, struck harder, and responded faster than most humans could, even with outside assistance. Still, drawing the lightsaber should be only in defense of the self or others. He knew of some Jedi who enjoyed the aggressive training bouts with the sabers, and for a time Obi-Wan was one of them. It was that aggression that nearly cost him the chance to be a Jedi, as he fought harder and struck harshly during the tournament as a youngling. Had Master Yoda not encouraged Qui-Gon to take another apprentice and the Force not leading them to meet again, Obi-Wan knew he’d be on Bandomeer in the Agricultural Corps. The lightsaber may be the Jedi’s weapon, but to Obi-Wan, it also served as a reminder of his hubris.

            Wolf broke the silence first, asking, “Why are they making us wait so long?”

            The same protocol droid, TC-14, from before entered, this time carrying a tray of drinks and food. Obi-Wan watched the door close behind it as it moved first to the bounty hunters. Both remained motionless, staring down at the droid. It finally gave up, and could droids sigh, he believed it would have. Smiling, he accepted a glass before Qui Gon did the same.

            “No,” his master said. “I sense an unusual amount of fear for something that should be trivial as a trade dispute.”

            Another moment of silence continue the façade of the negotiation before a rumble passed through the station. Obi-Wan and his master stood, their sabers drawn. Hawk and Wolf appeared just as ready, their blasters no longer in their holsters. Turning to locate the source, Obi-Wan spotted the gas slowly leaking into the room.

            “Dioxin!” Qui-Gon and Hawk both shouted. Taking a deep breath, Obi-Wan centered himself as the gas slowly filled the room. Wolf moved to his side, bring a rebreather up to his lips. Once he accepted it, she did the same for Qui-Gon, earning a nod of approval from his master.

            They waited in silence for several minutes, the gas covering every inch of the room. The fog clouded their sight. Without helmets or the Force, they’d be left blind and most likely dead. Except Jedi were never truly defenseless and the bounty hunters had more than their share of tricks.

            Hawk moved to start slicing the door when it slide open. The gas began to seep out of the room along with the protocol droid. She held up a hand, signaling them to hold even as she raised her blaster, with Wolf following suit. The bounty hunters fired off a quick round for each of their weapons. Bursts of sparks flared just outside the fog as the droid attackers fell They moved forward, stepping out of the fog and into the hallway.

            Obi-Wan followed after a few moments, his lightsaber raised in defense. An easy battle shifted into a mere exercise as the bounty hunters quickly cut down the oncoming droids. The four of them moved swiftly toward the bridge, carving down the droids in their path. Blast shields quickly covered doors as they approached.

            Wolf and Hawk took up flanking positions as they attempted to slice through the door. Another shield fell into place as more droids came down the hallway. Sharing a glance, Obi-Wan thrusted his saber into the door, burning it into molten slag.

            “Destroyers!” Wolf said as she fired off several rounds into the shielded droids. The blasts back deflected off of Hawk’s shield. He removed his saber as did Qui-Gon to prepare for the fight with a tougher opponent. Reaching out with the Force, Qui-Gon opened a vent before disappearing in it. Obi-Wan quickly followed him up, then Wolf and Hawk disappeared inside. This certainly had taken a turn for the odd, but so far wasn’t his worst negotiation. He hoped it wouldn’t become worse, but the feeling in the Force grew stronger with each passing moment.

            Once on the planet, with any luck they could reach Naboo without incident, but if their luck held, an incident would be the least of their worries.

**I0I**

            Wolf thought back to the last time she snuck onto a ship. Well, technically this wasn’t a ship but a landing vessel. She was the only person on it too, as the rest of the space was packed to the brim with droids. Well, technically, they weren’t droids any more but motion sensor bombs timed to go off in proximity with other droids. 

            The last ship she snuck upon was several weeks after they arrived. She was still Jenna Potter then, the Girl-Who-Shouldn’t’ve-Lived. Somehow, magic shucked her across the universe and she arrived on an alien planet. New sights, sounds, threats. So really, just like home for her. Except this time, people helped because the generally cared. No ulterior motives, no hidden agenda, nothing but kindness rang out through her magic, or the Force as it was known on this side of the universe.

            “Almost done,” she muttered to herself. Wolf never quite grasped the concept of slicing, not in the way Hawk did, but finesse wasn’t important here. She crossed another set of wires, tying them off before sliding them back into the powered down droid.

            The ship rumbled as it made its entry. She grasped two droids above her and tightened her legs around the neck of the droid she sat on. The hold popped the head of the droid off. She tried to grab onto it, but fumbled the head as gravity took ahold of the ship. It rattled around down there, adding to the deafening thunder of her ride. Her last ride was definitely better than this one.

            They hitched a ride on a freighter off of Corsuscant once Mia (she still was Hermione Granger then) read enough to craft them new identities for wherever here was. They slipped out in the middle of the fake-night on the planet, hiding on one freighter to a planet before hopping onto another one back to Nar Shaddaa to finish up the initial paperwork to be bounty hunters. Wolf wasn’t quite sure how Mia decided on that job, but with five years under her belt, she felt at peace.

            The rumbling ended almost as quickly as it began, followed by a sudden jolt. Climbing through the droids, Wolf reached the entrance. A push from the Force and she freed herself from the confines of the vessel. It carried her several dozen meters away, even as the ship continued to mow down trees in its path.

            Wolf bounded back to her feet, ignoring the dull pain in her shoulder. She raised a hand to her helmet. “Wolf to Hawk. Wolf to Hawk.”

            A burst of static and then - “Hawk has landed. Where you at?”

            “Right where the -” The vessel she road down in made it only a hundred meters before exploding in a fiery blast. “Where that was.”

            “Wolf!” She smiled to herself, fully expecting Hawk’s reaction.

            “Just how far are you?” Reaching out with her magic, Wolf searched for her. Her senses bounded through everything, moving through the rocks, the grass, the trees, the dirt, the burning mess of droids and vessel, until she found Hawk, and the Jedi. “Never mind. I’ll meet up with you.”

            “Good. Qui-Gon is nearby,” Hawk’s voice echoed through her helm.

            Another sweep with her enhanced senses brought a smile to her face. “Liar, but I still love you.”

            A moment of silence. “Fine. Just come find me, and we’ll find the others.”

            “Deal.” Wolf said. She took off in a run, the Force coursing through her and pushing her faster. This new manifestation of magic to enhance her senses brought her closer to the world around her. The tournament would have been much easier if she’d known how to do this during her fourth year. Unfortunately, it took traveling across space and time to learn something useful with magic.

            Wolf moved through the trees, pushing off the ground as she bounded toward Hawk. Her steps brushed the ground as she ran at speeds beyond most humans. Wind wrapped around her whipping by her as if she were riding a broom and not running. The Force helped guide her between the trees as she journeyed to Hawk. She kept searching for Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. The forest meshed with a swamp, the dirt becoming muddy and slippery at times even as she darted about the ground. She passed by the indigenous life, cataloging their presences for future reference but generally ignoring them. She did sense a humanoid lifeform by Qui-Gon, but Hawk was her priority.

            Landing with a dust cloud, Wolf stared up at Hawk with a wide smile on her lips. Not that Hawk could see the smile, but it was the thought that counted. “Missed me?”

            “Always,” Hawk said, likely smiling and rolling her eyes. “So, where are they?” Wolf spun around, staring into the swamp and trees. She pointed deeper into the trees, southwest from their current position if her HUD still worked accurately. “Then we better hurry.”

            “How many landed?” Wolf asked as they started running before their jetpacks took over. The investment more than paid for itself as it allowed them to cover ground quickly without worrying about expending too much energy or alerting their prey of their Force/magic abilities.

            “More than Naboo could deal with,” Hawk answered mid-stride. “More than we can deal with.”

            “Well, one less.” Wolf changed course moving to a lake or maybe just a large water source. Studying the planet should have been a priority, but Wolf spent more time mediating while traveling to Naboo. The storm Hawk talked of was coming, and with it something that would either break them or send them back to Earth. She could hardly call it home, not when she’d spent the last five years running and gunning with Hawk to stay alive.

            “There!” Hawk pointed out to the edge of the water. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan conversed with one of the Gungans gesticulating widely. 

            The lake stretched out further than the horizon, ending somewhere past two mountain ranges. The green expanses continued along the shore, protecting whatever fauna inside and providing them some cover from the landing droids. Wolf let her feet skid across the lake’s surface, kicking up a spray behind her. Hawk flew several meters higher, her movements calculated and efficient. When on the job, she never wasted energy unless completely necessary.

            Wolf managed to reach them first, landing softly as her jetpack cut out. Hawk landed beside her, not quite as gracefully, but still without much fanfare. Their landing caught the Gungan by surprise, sending him spiraling to the ground. Obi-Wan grinned briefly before settling into his usually stoic disposition.  Qui-Gon shook his head at the Gungan as the alien struggled to stand.

            “Theed is on the other side of the planet,” Hawk broke the silence as the Gungan finally put his feet underneath him. “And we have no transport to get there.”

            “We’re heading to Gungan City,” Qui-Gon said, pulling out the rebreathers Wolf handed him earlier. “Jar Jar will be leading us there.”

            “Jar Jar?” Wolf turned to the Gungan, taking in the long floppy ears, elongated nose, and reddish skin.

            “That’s mesa,” the Gungan pointed at himself.

            “Okay, rule one: Don’t speak in Basic,” Hawk said, her hand going to her blaster. The Gungan nodded quickly, catching the hint. Wolf shook her head as Haw relax.

            “You can translate?” Qui-Gon asked.

            Hawk nodded as Wolf fixed her blasters to the holster. If they were going underwater, she’d hate to lose her weapons. The lecture certainly wasn’t worth it. “It’s better than trying to listen to creatures butcher basic or us butcher their language. I assume you understand Basic?” Jar Jar nodded. “See, no problems then.”

            “And if they actually speak Basic?” Obi-Wan asked, smirking again.

            “She’ll turn off her audio ports, leaving me to translate,” Wolf said. It’d happen before, and Hawk owed her dearly each time, but the nights together certainly made the extra effort worth it. “Ready?”  Jar Jar nodded then let out an odd battle cry before jumping and twisting in the air. Spinning several times in the air, he then dove into the water. With no other option, the Jedi began to follow the Gungan into the unknown depths. Hawk turned to look at her, and underneath the helmet, Wolf knew the look wasn’t a good one.

            It wasn’t her fault they had to go under water. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to be down there too long. How far could a hidden city be?


	3. Heading into and out of Theed

Time was fickly and tricky. From the individual perspective, time flowed around them, resulting an observed causal distribution wherein which the initial resulting effects of a causal relationship may contribute to larger, long term behaviors in a nonlinear distribution system, thereby inadvertently relating seemingly disconnected events. Traveling through time only taught Hawk to be wary of any changes or sudden shifts in time. Time could metaphorically pass quicker or slower, but for it to actually pass at a different speed required an amount of energy impossible for an individual to currently create. Hence reliance upon other sources, like magic or the Force.

Without an objective standpoint, things moved oddly. Things didn’t necessarily happen in order, and in fact, sometimes events occurred as a result of some future event (e.g., the bootstrap paradox). Theoretically at least, though Hawk wondered if such paradox only came about when applying the considerable amounts of energy necessary to manipulate time.

The Jedi temple provided little insight into the method of energy consumption that propelled them from Earth to then-unknown universe and culture. She dove into her studies as much as she could, attempting to find some answer to unknown questions. The Jedi Masters sequestered in the libraries never approached her, only shooting her disapproving looks from afar. The only break in her studies into the Force and the new universe was in the form of helping Wolf adjust to the changes in their lives.

Even in her own thoughts Hawks could barely think of Jenna as anything but Wolf. They lived the roles too long that being anything other than a bounty hunter felt wrong. Hermione Granger was a tiny teenaged bookworm, stuck with her adoration of authority. Hawk stood tall, athletic and dedicated to bring in the scum and scoundrels of a universe, by any means necessary (not that all of the scoundrels were bad or wrong. They only picked contracts based upon information they independently verified). Her love of knowledge shifted from having to know everything to having to understanding everything. Through the Force, she no longer just memorized facts. Now, she moved the puzzle pieces about to understand the sudden changes to the present. It felt right, like this shift was a natural extension of who she was and who she could have been. Maybe a different Hermione from a different universe would still be the bookworm, and maybe a Hermione would be hopelessly in love with the Neanderthal, Weasley. Thankful, that wasn’t this universe. In this universe, Hawk swooped in, taking charge alongside her partner and love, Wolf.

Still, everything happening since she arrived in this universe varied from her previous existence exponentially. This mission was no exception. Between an underwater city, a native race she’d never had the chance to study, and nearly being eat by several ginormous and irritated fish, it was any wonder she left the Jedi temple in the first place. Missions like this brought back memories of her first year, sneaking along with Jenna to the third floor corridor to save the Philospher’s Stone. Except this time, the adventure actually involved saving a princess. Undoubtedly, this would go down as the strangest mission she’d ever taken.

            She followed Jinn’s lead, trusting he at least had a plan. She formulated several as well, touching the Force from time to time to better assess the situation and the information at hand. Wolf likely did the same, in her own way. Some days, she envied her lover for the way the Force showed itself to her. To see the big picture, to understand how things were connected and the consequences of those questions. All the answers there for her to explore.

            But alas, that was not the path of her studies.

            Since becoming aware of how her magic shifted and how the Force manifested itself within her, Hawk felt her perception become clearer. This perception now focused upon the lines of droids leading several people to another one of the camps the Trade Federation set up.

            “That’s our target?” she asked. Jinn lead them past patrols and to a vantage point. Jar Jar impossibly still followed them, though his movements reminded her less of a bumbling fool and more of the drunken master.

            “The Queen of Naboo, and it appears her security team,” Jinn said. He moved to the edge of the stone bridge, his Padawan following his lead. By an unspoken agreement, the two of them dropped down once the droids passed with the Queen’s entourage. With the efficient lethality she expected of Jedi, Jinn and Kenobi took out the droids. Jar Jar even managed to assist, falling off and into the droids in such a chaotic manner that nothing hit him.

            Wolf jumped down once they finished, taking up the rear guard leaving Hawk to fly ahead to the front. She twisted in the air, landing on her feet with an ease gained only through years of trial and error. She caught the security droids off balance, sending one tumbling as she landed. A quick shot from her blaster rendered it a nonthreat. Reaching out, she scanned the streets. Too many sightlines, too many dark alleys for things to jump out at them. Her eyes tracked movement, searching for the jerky droid actions. 

            “These are Hawk and Wolf,” Jinn said as he finished his introduction.

            “It isn’t safe in the open,” Wolf said from the back. She turned her back to the argument between the Queen and the Jedi. Taking stock of each face, Hawk sorted them in her memory before focusing on creating a defensive parameter. Sensing droids remained impossible for any Force user, meaning she had to rely on visually catching the rolling destroyers.  “We need to regroup.”

            “The palace!” Hawk shouted as she took up a defensive position at what now became the rear. Activating her shield, she pointed her blaster at the oncoming droids. Several of the guards took up arms with her, firing random bursts at the invading force.

            Her first shot took out an advancing battle droid. The bolt slammed into its head, sending it spinning and wildly firing its weapon at its comrades. It fell in a clump of metal but two quickly too its place.

            Side-stepping another droid’s shot, Hawk fired again. This one slammed into the chest plate. One of the guard fired at the same droid, hitting the equivalent of its shoulder, and another its firing arm. The combined shots dropped the battle droid, but again, more arrived.

            A destroyer droid rolled out of an alley behind the marching battle droids. Stepping closer, Hawk fired off a grappling hook at one of the battle droids and launched a small rocket at another one. Several droids concentrated their fire on her, their bolts ricocheting off her shield as it held. The rocket stuck to the droid who frantically tried to remove it from its shell. The grappling hook pulled the droid close and it was only a matter of swinging her other arm to extend the vibroblade from her gauntlet and severe the vital components. As she dropped her battle droid, the rocket exploded, damaging several other droids as well.

A blast burned through her shield, hitting her shoulder. The force jerked her aim, missing an unshielded destroyer and hitting the decorative architecture on the street. She ignored the pain as best as she could, walking backward to give the Queen’s entourage an attempt at an escape.  Droid after droid replaced the cannon fodder, and they barely made a dent in one of the destroyers. They kept walking forward, moving through the street and closer together. The battle droids brushed shoulders, rubbing against either other in an effort to get through. It stalled some of the attacks, though the destroyer droids kept fighting over the battle droids’ heads.

“Hawk! Get your ass over here!” Wolf’s voice through her helm.

“Move!” Hawk yelled to the few security officers who stuck around to help. She activated her jetpack, flying straight up in the air. The droids were bottlenecked by the street, buddle close together. Blasters may not have done a lot of damage, but that was far from the only weapon bounty hunters possessed.

Pointing her gauntlet at the grouping, Hawk let out a burst of hot gas and immediately lit it on fire. She ignored the pain that spread down her shoulder into the rest of her body as she fought to hold the fire steady. The flame-thrower covered the groups, sending high-pitched screams and shrills from the battle droids as they frantically ran into each other. The fire barely slowed down the destroyers but the mass destruction of the battle droids brought a larger explosion.

A trickle of guilt ran through her at the damage to the street, but her survival (and inadvertently the survival of the guards who stayed at her side) meant sacrificing the architecture for her life. “Let’s go. Head to the hanger.” She turned on a dime, flying back through the street with the guards on her heels.

Hawk tracked movement wherever she went, catching droids attempting to follow her as she raced to meet back up with Wolf. She flew through archways, firing off bolts from her blaster to take out battle droids where she could or hit more vital targets (including a few supply pillions).  She reached out with the Force, finding Wolf doing much of the same. Wrapping herself in Wolf’s touch, she let it guide her.

Her eyes never stopped tracking or calculating. She took in everything she could, and when the danger passed, the information could prove vital. Fight droids, even shielded ones had weakness. It just took a sharp eye and a keen mind, both Hawk possessed before the Force thought to lend a hand.

The Jedi were making easy work of a set of droids, their lightsabers slashing through the metal bodies. Kenobi sent one flying with a blast of the Force, propelling it into another one.  The droids smashed together as the Force blast blew them into the wall.  Jinn stuck to the simplicity of his saber, striking the vital components of the battle droids. As one stepped up to fire at him, he’d deflect the bolt into another one before slicing the attacking droid. She let her momentum continue her past them and onto the ramp of a large silver ship where Wolf helped an injured handmaiden up. Landing beside her, Hawk offered her arm to carry the young girl as Wolf applied a combination of potions, bacta and the Force.

“That’s everyone,” Wolf said, getting the Jedi’s attention. Another force blast knocked the approaching droids down, giving Jinn and Kenobi enough room to Force-move up the ramp and into the ship. 

Once on the Naboo cruiser, Wolf lead the handmaiden to the room, leaving Hawk to take lead. She pushed her way past the few security guards and sat down in the co-pilot’s seat. The pilot spared her a glance before continuing to go through a pre-flight check. Her movements were secondary as she kept sending reassuring thoughts to Wolf through their bond. She held fast, taking comforting in the bond when she couldn’t hold her partner like she wanted to.

“Your shoulder -” Kenobi started.

“Is fine,” Hawk said, ignoring the pain that started to spread beyond the shoulder proper. She reached forward, grunting past the pain to take control of the ship and direct it up and out of the hanger before the captain of the guard could say otherwise.

“I hate this, I hate this,” she muttered to herself as the ship carried them off the planet and to the stars.

As the atmosphere passed and stars began to shine upon the black, Hawk watched droid ships flood from the orbital station. She said a silent prayer for the captain of the vessel they flew in on. It was less than twelve short hours ago that they left Republic craft to begin this fool’s errand. The prayer didn’t do much, as no one here worshiped a Christian God, but the sentiment mattered more than anything else.

“We’re never going to make it through the blockade,” the captain said. He’d managed to move to the cockpit at some point while she focused on more important things, like not dying.  

“We will if the shield holds,” Hawk said. Wolf should be up here. She loved flying, and despite Hawk’s namesake and growing tolerance, flying often required dangerous stunts that Wolf instinctively knew. Hawk handled the weapons, usually, but she could get them out of here. She had to if she wanted to get home.

The console began to squeal as a green light flashed. She flicked off the warning, leaving the light flashing as she tried to respond to the rapidly approaching droids. She reached out with the Force, brushing the approaching form of Wolf. She needed her partner here. Working together meant winning. Ever since she’d known Wolf, even when she was Jenna, Hawk found her strengths amplified and weaknesses diminished alongside. This was on top of the safety in the face of danger as long as she knew she wasn’t alone. She let out a sigh even as she tried to fly this toothless behemoth of a ship: her partner wasn’t far away anymore.

“You had to say something,” Wolf muttered as she arrived in the cockpit. The ship rocked as several fighters fired upon them. Hawk twisted the controls, desperate to avoid most of them. Another blast rocked the ship. A blue flashing light popped up on the dash as Wolf pushed the captain out of his chair.

Tapping the console, Hawk sent the astromech droids out to repair. “Bout time you got here.”

“Not my fault one of the handmaidens thought she could play hero,” Wolf said as she took control over the ship. The view tilted and spun as Wolf flew them between several fighters. Hawk kept watch of the panels. Had there been a weapon’s system, at least she would have felt useful. Now, with Wolf at the wheel, all she could do was maintain the ship’s system.

“Which one?” The captain asked.

“What?” Wolf righted the view as two droid ships flew into another just off of the viewscreen.

“Which handmaiden was hurt?” He asked again.

“What does it matter?” Hawk flipped through screens. “Damn, shields are still down. Only one astromech left.”

“If we don’t get the shields up, we’re sitting ducks,” Kenobi said from his position at one of the auxiliary seats.

“Ducks don’t sit,” Wolf said, twisting the controls again. The ship rocked as they moved into another spin, flying past another set of droids. “They fly.”

Hawk relaxed in her seat as the lone astromech worked. Together, the two of them saved the ship, Wolf steering through the droid ships attacking them even as a droid saved them. “We’ve got a battleship on approach.” Hawk reported as the ship rocked from another hit.

Wolf snorted as she leveled out the ship. “Not going to take too many more of those.”

“Won’t mean a damn if we don’t  - yes!” Hawk slammed on the console even as Wolf turned the ship away from battleship. The green warning light finally shut off and the shield slowly powered back up. They spun again, slipping by two crashing droid attack ship. Hawk worked on the deflector, leaving Wolf to pilot them away from the battleship.

“Can’t relax for long,” Kenobi said, shaking her from her thoughts. “We’re not going to make it to Corsusant.”

“Had to ruin my good mode,” Wolf said, leveling out the ship.

“We’ll need a safe place to land,” Jinn said, drawing Hawk’s attention to him for the first time since their escape started.

“Well, you all can decide that,” Wolf said, standing up for the chair. She patted Hawk on the shoulder. A wave of energy flowed out of the shorter woman and into Hawk. The Force wrapped around her wound, easing the pain until Wolf could get a better look at the burn in private. “I’ve got a patient to see.”

“Which one?” The captain all but demanded.

“What’s it matter to you?” Wolf asked, tilting her head. “It’s not like the Queen was hit. In fact, the young handmaiden saved the Queen’s life.” The captain sputtered before racing out of the room. “Yeah, that fooled no one, right?”

“What?” Jinn looked at her as she left them.

Hawk stood from her seat and moved to Kenobi’s side. She understood Wolf’s reference now that she had a moment to review her memories. The handmaidens served as decoys for the Queen, given the strikingly similar facial and physical features. All stood about the same height, only a few centimeters difference at most between them.  With the captain’s concern over a handmaiden, it meant the handmaiden may be more than actually a handmaiden.

“You find a suitable alternative?” Hawk asked Kenobi.

“This one,” he said, tapping the star chart. An image of red sand covered planet expanded on the screen beneath his finger. “Tatooine.”

Jinn moved over his shoulder, reviewing the planet. Hawk knew Tatooine well. They spent a great deal of time there, either seeking or capturing their prey. A desert planet with a few spaceports and plenty of moisture farmers and salvagers. Some factories operated, though the sand got into too many places to make long term operations on the surface feasible. Dangerous living for desperate people.

“It’s small, out of the way, poor… The Trade Federation has no presence there,” Kenobi continued.

“No such thing as small favors. It’s controlled by the Hutts,” Hawk said. “We going to warn the Queen about this?”

Jinn shook his head. “The level of danger to her would be the same as if we landed on a system controlled by the Federation…except the Hutts aren’t looking for her, which gives us an advantage.”

“Alright, I’ll start the calculations. Hopefully nothing else will break down on us before we get there.” Hawk sat back at the controls and began to enter in the coordinates.

“You fly very well,” Jinn said, taking the seat Wolf left vacant only a few minutes before. Kenobi left them, presumable to speak with the captain (she really needed to learn his name)

“By necessity rather than desire,” Hawk said. “Despite my name, I prefer the earth under my feet. Wolf is more of a natural than I am.”

“It could have been much worse,” Jinn said, “and you agree with Wolf’s assessment of the Queen’s entourage?”

“Like you never considered the possibility,” she said as she tapped in the final commands to slip into Hyperspace. It’d be a quick ride, and hopefully without any permanent damage. The white lights of stars elongated as the ship slipped from normal space into the folds between. In moments, they were beyond the reach of the Trade Federation and heading safely to Corsusant.

“It is a wise defensive action,” Jinn commented. “Though the charade is dangerous to continue around us.”

“Wolf isn’t a fan of liars,” Hawk said, “especially liars who put us at risk. If we’d, or I had, done the background, then we’d be prepared for it. I probably wouldn’t have stayed at the rear.”

“It would have changed our plans as well, but no plan survives enemy contact. The future is constantly in motion,” Jinn said, cautioning her.

“More than you think, Master Jedi,” Hawk said, turning to stare at the stars streaming past them. “More than you think.”

“You sense something as well?” Jinn asked. She turned back to look at him, staring through her helm. Without moving, it normally unnerved most people, but Jedi hardly were most people.

“No,” Hawk finally admitted. “But I trust Wolf. She…she feels something is wrong.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, various controls lighting but nothing requiring her attention. Hawk let her body relax, the tension slipping away. It would return once they made planet fall on Tatooine, but until then she could relax. Maybe even remove the armor and shower.

“Did you ever consider staying on at the Temple? Continuing your studies?” Jinn asked, breaking the silence between them.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. The helmet hid the fury and tears in her eyes as she thought back to the few days before their hurried departure. “Not when your Jedi Masters only wanted to use Wolf for their own gain. Just like everyone else in her life.”

Jinn tilted his head but said nothing. He hadn’t been one of the Masters pushing to examine Jenna Potter. Their connection to magic translated to a connection with the Force easily enough that Jenna became just as powerful once in this galaxy.  Hermione was middling, but the Force helped to enhance her innate abilities. It didn’t excuse their curiosity, the staring, the harsh whispers in the Jedi Temple about her best friend.

Hawk closed her eyes as the memories hit her. She remembered the first time the whispers reached her enhanced senses, when she started to stop caring about knowing everything and started to try and understand instead. It was the Temple Library, where most of her discoveries took place. The refuge hadn’t changed, despite being in a completely new galaxy, but then Hermione simple needed to know as much as she could if they wanted to go home someday. The whispers turned into glares, as they failed to answer more and more of questions.

The histories of the Order filled the Library, but most of it talked about how mysterious the Force was. Given enough time, Hermione hypothesized several theories on the given energy expenditure for any Force ability, but Hawk found herself more and more frustrated. Everything culminated in a single evening, where Masters Suun and Rei-Li-En attempted a plan to capture Jenna. Hawk blasted both Masters off the Temple, and had the temple guards, two Jedi Knights, not be nearby, they likely would have been her first murders. She ran to Jenna, and off the planet they went.

“Master Yoda was quite upset at your departure,” Jinn said.

“Well, so was Wolf – at least until she learned what the Jedi wanted to do,” Hawk said.

“I am surprised you were willing to assist us then with all your misgivings.” Hawk stood from her seat, taking a few steps to gather her thoughts. She reached the entrance to the cockpit before the thoughts coalesced.

“You helped us first,” Hawk said, shrugging her shoulders. It should have been more complicated than that, but it boiled down to the simple fact that the Jedi offered assistance seeking nothing in return. As a group, she respected them enough but the individuals within the Order left a bad taste in her mouth. Too many were too rigid, and even if she couldn’t embrace the Force in the same way as Wolf, she found rigidity limited what she could see. Moreover, there were some who wanted Wolf for no reason other than to study her. They couldn't stay there, even if it meant leaving the safety of the Temple for the dangers of the galaxy.  When given the chance to return that kindness, it felt right to do so without complaint or payment. And beyond that, Jinn and Kenobi were friends, and friends helped each other out. 

Being open left her seeing more. Seeing increased her understanding of the world, which ultimately increased her knowledge. Hawk may no longer be a bookworm, but knowledge remained the most powerful thing in the universe. No matter what Jedi’s saw, the Force paled in comparison to simply knowing more.

“I’m going to try and clean up while we can,” Hawk said, taking the chance to calm down and maybe mediate. While Hogwarts taught them to channel the energy through the wands, the Force required a continuous connection and balance. Releasing emotions, regardless of valence, into the Force aided in maintaining the connection. Plus, cleaning up meant drawing Wolf into a shower, and any alone time she could get on a crowded spacecraft was always a good way to end the day.


	4. The Princess is in Another Castle

Landing on Tatooine was a lackluster affair. Despite the Qui-Gon’s insistence at landing away from the spaceport, Hawk successfully argued landing within Mos Espa. If they landed on the outskirts of town, people would notice, and people that noticed tended to gossip, for better or worse. Gossip traveled faster than most starships, and no matter how hard they tried to hide the Queen then, someone inadvertently would slip up (Wolf put her money of Jar Jar or one of the handmaidens), leaking vital information.

Cost them some trade, but Wolf definitely preferred it to having to hike to town and back. Plus, they were much closer to the cantina. Even if Hawk didn’t quite approve, taking a job right now would give them good cover.

            “Thank you.” Wolf looked up at Padme, the injured handmaiden/queen/decoy. She came in to check the bandages to find the younger girl up and dressing in very plain blue and brown clothes. Definitely not the garb of a handmaiden or a queen.

            “Not a problem,” she said, smiling as her hair fell into her face. She tucked a black lock behind her hair. Her hated helmet rested nearby, waiting to be placed back on her head. “I’m just thankful I could minimize the scar.”

            “That’s-that’s my fault,” Padme said. “I shouldn’t have tried to help.”

            Wolf tucked the bandage back around her chest, letting the blue shirt fall back to cover her. “The urge never really goes away. You know?”

            “You’ve…your people aren’t dying on a planet lightyears away,” Padme said. She tried to glare at Wolf, but her eyes moved off to stare elsewhere.

            “Technically, they are,” Wolf said, smiling through the painful memories. A long way from home and no way to return. The maps held no reference to Earth, and all interstellar examination of the planet were thousands of years old. So even if they found a way back home, there was no guarantee it would be the Earth they remembered. Everyone could be dead for hundreds of years or maybe not even born.

The shadow in the Force kept growing larger, looming in the distance but never going closer. In her dreams, the shadow haunted her, draping and lofting as if an unseen wind ran through it. Just on the other side, she swore she heard voices. The similarities between the shadow and the Veil of Death back at the Department of Mysteries scared her more than she’d admit. “I’ve just…if I can’t do anything now, then why worry about it?”

            “But I could be doing something now,” Padme said. She started to stand, trying to push off Wolf’s hands. Royalty were always difficult to deal with, but oddly the Naboo elected their queen. So technically, it wasn’t a monarchy, or at least, not in the sense that Wolf understood them. Still, Padme was used to getting what she wanted, even if it meant playing as a decoy to protect her. “I should be with them –“

            “In the camps? Held hostage?” Wolf offered, stopping whatever thoughts she may have had. “We’ve dealt with situations like that. Not on this level, but hostages are a lot harder to deal with than aiding runaways.”

            “So what then,” Padme flopped back down onto the makeshift bed. “What am I supposed to do?”

            “Pouting only makes you look cute,” Wolf said, smirking at the now blushing queen/handmaiden. “It solves nothing, so stop that.”

            “Giving advice you can’t follow?” Both of them turned to see Hawk in her armor leaning against the doorway. Her helmet must be back in their quarters, so either she didn’t care if they were going to be noticed or wasn’t expecting trouble.

            “Well, you just have to know when the pout works,” Wolf said, winking at Padme. She turned back to Hawk, standing from her position at the girl’s side. “Did the men decide something?”

            Hawk snorted, standing upright from her position at the door frame. “Apparently, Jinn is going to go in search of new parts.”

            “New parts?” Padme asked. She looked between them, silently imploring for more.

            “Right, your doctor sequestered you away,” Hawk said. Wolf shot back a smile at Padme. Captain Panaka expressed his displeasure with Wolf making Padme rest and with the queen being sedated. Even when she calmly explained to him the queen needed to rest if she wanted to get out of it without any more damage to her ribs or a large scar, the Captain still postured and blustered about. Obi-Wan stepped in at that point to calm the man down, else Wolf may have followed through on the threat to remove the dick he felt the need to keep waving in order to get his way.  “The hyperdrive generator’s busted. Barely managed to make it here. On top of that, we’ve got nothing to trade.”

            “Trade? Why would we need to trade?” Padme asked, finally leaving the bed.

            Wolf’s grin fell. Padme lived a sheltered life, and in all likelihood, this was the first time she’d ever gone to a non-Republic planet. Not everything rotated around the Republic, and the life of a politician meant life in the upper echelons of society. Two things Wolf avoided, despite the money and the political power she could weld (if they ever got home).

            “They likely won’t accept credits here,” Hawk explained. “Even if they did, the cost may be more than worth trading for.”

            “Even if we had something they wanted, it may not be something you’d be willing to give up,” Wolf added. She thought of the slaver’s ring they broke up on Ylesia system.

            The job seemed simply on its face: Head to Ylesia, meet with some religious dudes and escort a young girl from there to a nearby orbital station only a couple dozen parsecs away or so. Turns out the religious dudes, not so religious and more of the slave owner types than anything else. The girl? Kidnapped from her family on Hutta as ‘insurance’ against reprisals from one of the Hutt lords. And the distance? Like half the galaxy away when things boiled down to the nuts and bolts. The route the kidnappers wanted to take pushed pasted Republic patrols and scans. So all and all, great choice in job.

            Picking up the girl, a young Twilik named Eli’re, was simple enough. At the time, they had their own spacecraft, _The Old Marauder_ , an old cargo ship retrofitted with several blasters and a cache of rockets. They landed on Ylesia at the rendezvous point, where Eli’re was escorted by several large humans and zabraks. Hawk stayed silent, letting Wolf handle the initial interaction. Hawk’s gaze swept over their ‘employers,’ judging them and no doubt finding them lacking on numerous criteria (including hygiene). The initial control stated only Eli’re would be traveling with them, but Reacher, the human in charge, changed it on the landing pad: Instead, three grunts (two of the zabraks and one human) would be going with them. At the time, it only served as a point of irritation for them, and Wolf promptly negotiated an increase in their payment, much to Reacher’s displeasure. After his posturing, Reacher relented to their demands.

            Reaching out with the Force, Wolf felt Eli’re’s fear as they brought her on board. The accompanying guard started to make their own demands when Hawk escorted her to their lodging area (really just modified cargo holds, but the beds were newish and everything was clean). The same fear rang out through the Force even louder. The new sensations brought on through the Force nearly crippled Wolf. She collapsed against the bulkhead, trying to maintain a calm through the emotional storm coming off of Eli’re.

            A hand on her shoulder broke the memory. “Calm down love.” Hawk whispered. Wolf turned into her, wrapping her arms around Hawk’s neck. She let herself be pulled up, barely standing on her tip-toes to tuck her head against Hawk. Arms held her close, tightening a bit as she worked to center herself.

            Reaching out to the Force, Wolf tried to bleed out the anger and rage. She tried to let go of the fear she felt rolling over her when she met Eli’re. Unlike magic, the Force freely accepted her negative thoughts. It opened its arms wide, surrounding Wolf as surely as Hawk’s arms. Magic crackled and spat back the emotions, letting them gather into a storm she couldn’t control. A warmth settled inside her as she let go of the pain from the memory. In time, maybe she would be able to handle the memory in full, but for now she would just have to accept that her inability in the past did not translate to failure in the present.

            Hawk laid a kiss on her head. “Better?” She whispered into her hair. Wolf nodded into her chest, focusing on her heart beat and letting that carry her fear and anger into the Force. Her breathing settled as she focused back on the present. “You up for working?”

            “Always,” Wolf said into her breastbone before pulling back. She pulled herself the last few inches up to kiss Hawk fully. Their lips touched in a short brush before a long slow drawl. Wolf nipped her lip, pulling back and dragging Hawk down with her. Releasing her fully, she caught Hawk’s stunned face, smirking to herself even as she reached out through the Force to caress the energy within Hawk.

            “Wow.” Wolf turned to catch Padme’s blushing face. “That was…I’m so sorry for intruding on that.”

            “It’s okay,” Hawk said, recovering but staying close by. “We tend to forget that other people aren’t quite used to such public displays of affection.”

            Padme shook her head, her blush deepening. “No, it wasn’t that. It’s just – you looked so – I mean, I’ve never seem two people so free like that.”

            “Do you mean two women?” Wolf asked, trying to ignore the irritation that arose at the thought. Even in a so-called civilized galaxy, bigots would be bigots.

            Except Padme looked too distraught over Wolf’s assumption. “No. I just mean – It’s not that you love each other, I’m just…. I’m so sorry.”

            “Wolf, leave the poor girl alone,” Hawk said, shaking her head. Wolf tried not to jump from the finger sharply poking her side. “We’re sorry. Normally we are a little more restrained, but it has been a hectic day.”

            “No, I understand,” Padme said. Her shoulders slumped a little, a sheepish smile on her lips. “Being a-a-a handmaiden to the queen means I have given up my life for both her and the people.”

            “You know you’re not fooling anyone in this room,” Wolf said, staring at her. Padme shuffled underneath the gaze, trying to avoid eye-contact with both them.  For all the trappings of her office, it was easy to see her as a young teenager. She might have found her place in the world, but, as she now knew, the world wasn’t as kind to her as she was to it. “For a queen, you have a very bad Sabaac face.”

            “S’not my fault. You’re the one giving me painkil – “ Padme stopped mid-sentence, her hand covering her mouth to prevent any more words come out. Wolf started to giggle, and even Hawk managed to laugh.

            “Relax, we’re not going to go blabbing it,” Wolf said, smiling a little more freely. “Though, you should have trusted us.”

            “Wolf,” Hawk growled lightly.

            “I’m just saying, we are now her security force and should have been made aware of this,” Wolf said. She tried to look innocent, bring her shoulders in to make herself smaller and shuffling back and forth on her feet.  Hawk wasn’t buying it and only intensified her glare. “Fine, I shouldn’t have blabbed it to the Jedi.”

            “There, was that so hard to admit,” Hawk said, kissing Wolf’s head again. She pulled her to lean against her body before focusing on Padme. “Now that we know, it actually will be easier to hide you in plain sight. Just going to need all the handmaidens in garb like you.”

            “Really? Why?” Padme asked. Hawk stepped to the side, letting go of Wolf to leave the room. Wolf tried to keep her whine soft. Losing contact with Hawk didn’t mean losing their connection, but whenever they touched, Wolf felt the Force sing through them (even if they had to have their clothes on).

            “Guarding one person makes it obvious who is the target,” Hawk said as they walked to the common area where the others probably were waiting.

            “Add in the decoys, the security can play three-card monty all we want,” Wolf added from a few steps behind them.

            “But if you didn’t know who I was?”

            Wolf responded first, “Then we run the risk of protecting the wrong person. Ah, see, we weren’t running late, and your queen is fine.” She spoke the last part to Captain Panaka who glare at him from the other side of the common room.

            “We agree with their assessment, your Highness,” Qui-Gon said. “We will be working on resupplying while we are here, as well as attempting to get a hyperdrive generator.”

            “Given the number of markets in close proximity, it should not be too long,” Obi-Wan said. He held up a hand, stopping Wolf from interrupting. “Provided we have the necessary funds to pay for it.”

            “Yes, I’ve been made aware of our situation,” Padme said. Wolf caught the subtle shift in her behavior. Despite her small stature and young appearance, the Queen stood straight, held her head higher. Her voice firm in cadence, never faltering or even breaking under the strain. The painkillers skill coursing through her system only held her in check. “I will be accompanying one of the groups heading toward the market.” This time, she held up a hand, stopping any more interruptions. “I will not be sidelined in the name of protecting me. A moving target is less likely to be struck, and if anyone were to stay on the yacht, then the guards our protectors paid off will likely talk.”

            “They better not,” Hawk muttered. Wolf looked up, catching the smile on Hawk’s lips. They traded a few gems, not very large ones but enough to get them appropriate cover for the next few days. If they needed more, then Wolf definitely needed to line them up a job or two.

            “One of us will be with her at all times,” Wolf spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention to them.

            “As will Obi-Wan or myself,” Qui-Gon said. “I would like to you understand you are exposing yourself to a larger threat by moving out in the open, your Highness.”

            “I have exposed myself to threats since taking the throne,” Padme said, countering his argument. “As you stated earlier, the only difference is no one is looking for me here.”

            “You will not wander off?” Qui-Gon asked.

            “Any more than I would with my own guards,” Padme said, nodding toward the captain of her guard. Wolf tried to catch her eyes, offering the queen her vote of confidence. “I will not be sidelined, here or at the Senate.”

            Qui-Gon nodded in approval, finally accepting her comprise. “Very well, your Highness, but be mindful of your arrogance.”

            Padme arched an eyebrow but said nothing in return. She signaled her handmaidens, moving with them to her chamber to change into something similar to her own peasant garb. Wolf watched them leave, waiting for them to be out of ear-shot before turning to the Master Jedi. “She’s going with you, isn’t she?”

            “It would make sense, and given her age, she could pass as my daughter,” Qui-Gon offered. “And we would not need you to guard us as well.”

            “We are more noticeable,” Hawk said, conceding his point.

            Wolf sighed. She liked Padme a lot, and being around other females would do the girl some good, especially ones not there to solely advise her. Plus, she kind of wanted to know what kind of life a queen lived. She might have time later to ask the questions in private, but it seemed like Panaka wouldn’t leave them alone with her again. “Fine, but if we’re off on our own, I’m getting us some work.”

            “Then it may be best if I went along with Wolf,” Obi-Wan said, earning a smile from her and an amused look from his Master.

            “You’re not using this as a chance to hit on my mate, are you?” Hawk asked. Obi-Wan sputtered and blushed at the question, looking between her and his master for help. Wolf stifled her giggles as best as she could. Obi-Wan was cute, but he definitely wasn’t her type.

            Even if men found her sexually attractive, she never would respond in the same way. She’d known that much about herself after a brief encounter with a very hot Veela in her fourth year at Hogwarts. Said encounter might have involved the Veela bumping her impressive chest in her (apparently Veela magic helped them carry such an impressive weight despite her lithe body), and maybe she stole a kiss or two. Had Jen not been overwhelmed by the Veela’s allure on full bore, she might have managed to say something. Thankfully, the encounter didn’t last long, Jen consented to the kisses, and the Veela in question (the very attractive and very legal Fleur Declaur) apologized immediately for not maintaining control. Of course, Jen made her blush at that point too, responding with a comment about it being too bad.

            Wolf never had a chance to explore it more with Fleur as the tourney got in the way, not to mention Ron’s very awkward and loud attempts to ask her and Fleur out, Colin’s awkward stalking, and well the whole trying not to die. Winning was kind of nice, and she did at least get a kiss out of Fleur, much to Hawk’s jealous (only admitted after an offhand comment one night after caught their target, set fire to their room, and broke their bed – not necessarily in that order either).

            “I think we’ll be fine,” Wolf said, through her giggles. “Not like we can get in a lot of trouble in the desert.”

            Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “Yes, because you’ve managed to get us thrown out of just about every bar on Corsuscant.”

            “Just, try not to draw too much attention.” Qui-Gon said. Wolf nodded quickly, knowing that was the best offer she’d get out of the elder Jedi. She’d need to grab a handmaiden, maybe Sabe would like to join them. She’d seen the way the young girl looked at Obi-Wan when she thought not one else was looking. In fact, all of the handmaidens, real or fake, stared at the young Padawan at different points in their journey.  She watched the younger man himself, the confidence and courage in his movements belayed his strength and kindness.

            “No explosions,” Hawk said before she could leave the room.

            “No promises!” Wolf shouted back, pulling Obi-Wan with her.

            “You’re really not to going make anything explode, are you?” Obi-wan asked. She turned back to see trepidation in his eyes.

            Wolf sent a smirk back at him. “Please, like we’d start off the trip with explosions.” She stopped to knock on the door to the Queen’s room. “We’ll work our way up to that.”


	5. Sand everywhere

Stepping into arid climates always bothered Hawk when in her armor. Between sweating and the weight of the armor, fatigue struck harder and faster than without it. This only happened when in her armor. Without it, the aridness reminded her of an emptiness. It stole everything from the air, the water, your breath, even your life. It pushed her to be more aware, more active in her seeing.  Both of them pushed harder in fact, as Wolf would bound across the landscape faster at times and use the Force even more. Despite her jovial attitude at times, Hawk always trusted Wolf more than the Jedi, even if the Jedi in question were friends.

            “Why do I need two body guards?” Padme whispered. Hawk turned to look down at her. Without her helmet, the wind stung against her face, dust whipping up at times into her eyes.

            “Because if something does happen, we want you defended,” Hawk said, “and before you say otherwise, you got hurt the last time you tried to fight. We didn’t.”

            “It was a lucky a shot,” Padme said, turning away to pout. Hawk glanced up at Jinn, catching his gaze. He shook his head, silently letting her take the lead on this. Jar Jar wandered off, though stayed within reach of their astromech droid, R2D2. Hopefully

            “A lucky shot is all it would take,” Hawk said. “You’re more than just a person to your planet. You know that?”

            “I know that,” she snapped. A couple of aliens passed them in deep discussion about the last pod race, talking about someone named Sebulba. She took two deep breaths before starting to walk again. When she spoke, she nearly whispered her words. “I know. But I can’t do nothing. My people are dying.”

            “And you are doing something,” Hawk said. “You’re not locked up in a tower somewhere, waiting to be saved.”

            “Thank the Force for small favors,” Padme muttered as the started to move back toward the junk traders. Wolf and Kenobi headed toward the newer sellers, potentially finding a deal there. It was unlikely, given their lack of funds, but the chance could not be overlocked. It’s why Wolf planned on stopping at the cantina. There always were local jobs to be done. They never paid much, or if they did, they were incredibly dangerous. Their current lack of funds meant taking dangerous jobs may become a necessity if they wanted to leave the planet without alerting the Trade Federation.

            The group spent most of the morning stopping in and moving from trader to trader. Hawk kept scanning the crowd, glaring at the over eager men staring at Padme.  The young girl never realized it, enthralled by whatever was in the stall. Hawk moved her hand over her blaster and stepped in front of Padme. The men blustered and glared at her, but Hawk casually removed the blaster, tapping it against her thigh. They scattered rather quickly after that. She turned back to catch Jinn’s approval, smiling in return.

            By mid-afternoon, they stopped to grab a bite to eat from one of the stalls. No matter what the planet or galaxy, meat on a stick remained a delicacy of the street vendors. More often than not, Hawk trusted them rather than the restaurants claiming to have the newest and best techniques known to civilization. Often that translated into overcooked, overpriced, and underserved meals. Wolf loved the vendors too, always surveying everything. Ever since they had a little extra credits, Hawk took to buying trinkets for her partner, things Wolf’s eyes stalled on for just a moment before moving on. Wolf never asked for anything, and instead spent her pocket money on orphans and the destitute.

Unfortunately, it had been a stall Jar Jar decided to sample before paying. His tongue snapped out, grasping at the odd bit of meat. The human owner predictably wasn’t thrilled and pulled his blaster on Jar Jar, and consequently their party. Jinn managed to smooth things over with the vender, using the Force to manipulate him into forgiving them. Hawk took the opportunity to slowly explain to Jar Jar that such behavior would have him locked in a very tiny room onboard the Nubian yacht. Then she handed him the odd meat, earning odd looks from the Gungan. Never let it be said Hawk didn’t know how to use both the carrot and the stick.

            Padme swallowed a bit of the meat on a stick, which turned out to be a local type of cattle (maybe), before speaking to them. “I hope our friends are having better luck than us.”

            “Things happen in their own time,” Jinn said. He directed them toward another vendor, one just off the main road. “Best not to give up hope quite yet.”

            Hawk walked at the rear, watching out for Padme. A fortunate byproduct of this was also making sure Jar Jar stayed out of trouble. She still wasn’t sure why the Gungan remained with them. While potentially useful, Jar Jar drew more attention to them than necessary. For the moment, she had control under him, but it wouldn’t be long before his brain short circuited or something and then she’d need to lock him in that tiny room on the yacht.

            The first stop off the main road provided them no success on the hyperdrive generator. Hawk found some items worth reselling, but that would require time and haggling. With Jinn’s very quick assessments of each store, she’d have to attempt the bargaining later. Maybe tomorrow if they or Wolf didn’t have any success today. She preferred to deal with problems head on, but buying and selling offered her a way to actively deal with merchants. She’d rarely used the Force manipulation, despite the effectiveness of the technique – not that she could do more than make someone consider a different opinion. Jinn, on the other hand, manipulated with the best politicians she’d ever seen. He managed to manipulate emotions, thoughts, and maybe if he tried hard enough, convictions. Watching Jinn utilize his Force influence several times on different merchants through the day to gain information left her feeling uneasy. For a man who warned the queen about her arrogance earlier, he certainly didn’t see the irony of the Jedi and their methods.

            “We have a lead,” Jinn said, coming up to talk with her. Padme never moved far from her side, silently searching everything the wares of the vendor. Nothing extravagant or to meet their needs, but interesting nonetheless.  “A merchant named a Watto may have the parts we need.”

            “Let’s hope he does,” Padme said, placing a droid part back onto the shelving unit where she’d grabbed it. “If not, we will need to find an alternative. Maybe trade our ship for another one.”

            “We will think of something Padme,” Hawk said, moving from looking around the shop to her.

            “Thank you Hawk,” Padme said, walking side by side with her as they headed to Watto’s shop. “I know you and Wolf didn’t have to agree to be a part of this.”

            “No, we did,” Hawk said. She caught several people watching them again. One from only a few stops previous, a rodian that kept trying to stay in the shadows. “Go on inside. I need to speak with someone.” She pushed Padme into the store, catching Jinn’s eye contact. He nodded, letting Jar Jar in with him. R2D2 stayed by her side, whirling his question. “No, it shouldn’t be trouble.” R2 beeped and tweeted again. “Not that it is the plan, but Wolf can’t have all the fun, can she?” Another beep and she was left alone as R2 headed inside.

            Hawk waited at the door, leaning against wall right by the entrance way. She closed her eyes, silently opening herself up to the Force. While the Living Force flowed through her, she caught a glimpse shadow finally moving through everything even as the light of life dances around her. The shadow Wolf warned her about, the same one that Obi-Wan likely saw, branched into everything. Some branches were tiny, barely able to trickle anything into the dancing light. Some branches were thick, balancing with the light in a delicate tango.

In the rodian, the branch reached deep inside of him and nearly extinguished his light. Not to the level she expected in the Dark Side, but the shadow’s reach struck deeply inside of him. If the rodian was in control, then he freely chose the traitors life he lived. If the shadow control the rodian, then the thought frightened her even more: whoever manipulated the shadow had a reach that extended to the very tips of the Outer Rim.

She used the Force to memorize as much as she could about him. The green skin stood out against the desert motif of the Tatooine. The rodian wore dark clothing, but did nothing to hide besides sticking to the shadows. His large dark eyes followed her companions, sticking to her for a moment but then trying to appear focused on something else. His long fingers played with a blaster rifle in his hands, keeping it pointed at the ground. She caught his eyes one last time, staring down him and the darkness he represented before slipping inside the shop.

Upon entering the mercantile, Hawk watched a young boy speak with Padme. He appeared no more than nine years old, maybe even younger. Sandy hair clung to his head in a bowl shape, but the blue eyes stared deep into her. She caught the boy’s eyes evaluating her as she stepped around several piece of junk Jar Jar must have knocked over. “Who is your friend, Padme?”

“Hawk,” Padme turned to greet her before turning back to the little boy. “This is Anakin.”

“Hello,” Anakin said. There was something about him that drew your attention, but at the moment, Hawk failed to identify the cause. The Force pulled on her though, drawing her gaze back to the boy even as she tried to surveil the shop. Something about him felt off. Unlike the rodian, there was no branch of the shadow inside the boy, but the emotions sparked his light into a blazing fire. Uncontained, it could burn through everyone and everything.

“Hello,” Hawk said, nodding to him. “Has Jinn made a discovery?”

“Yes, I believe he’s talking to Watto about the hyperdrive,” Padme said. Hawk turned to look out the door to the back. On one hand, Jinn possessed nothing of value to trade rendering any negotiation pointless at this point. On the other, leaving Padme along with someone else, even a child, went against her role as a bodyguard.

            “And you two?” Hawk asked, moving to stand by Padme. Jar Jar cowered under the glare she sent him, standing still in the center of the room.

            “She’s an angel,” Anakin said, now focused on her instead of Padme. “Are you one too?”

            “Of a different kind,” Hawk said. “My partner is much more of an angel then either of us.” She smiled at the thought of Wolf. Unbidden, she pictured Wolf beneath her, writhing under her touch. She shook her head, letting the thought disappear for the moment as it wouldn’t do her any good. “Do you work here?”

            “Kind of,” Anakin said, looking away from her. “Watto owns me and my mom.”

            “Oh,” Hawk said. Padme narrowed her eyes, not quite glaring at her, but definitely not happy that Hawk brought up the slavery. “How is it?”

            “It’s okay. I don’t really remember my last master,” Anakin said with a shrug of his shoulder. “He lets me work on anything I want, as long as I get my work done.”

            Hawk nodded, understanding his conflicted feelings. Her senses caught Jinn’s approach. “Thank you for your help today, Anakin.”

            “The boy isn’t causing any trouble, is he?” Watto’s grating voice came over. She almost wished the Toydarian switched to Huttese or whatever his native language was. She couldn’t speak them all, but translating them was easy enough. Convience was no excuse for improper

            “No, quite the opposite in fact,” Hawk said. “Anything we need to discuss?”

            “Have to check with the missus, eh?” Watto chuckled before slapping Jinn on the back. Hawk kept her face as neutral as she could before making her way out of the shop. Jinn returned the awkward laugh, motioning for Padme and Jar Jar to leave.

            The rodian from earlier was gone. Hawk considered contacting Wolf to see if they had any success. Trading for the drive, even if they found it, likely would require more credits or items than either of them had on hand. Even if the Jedi Council or the Nubian government could reimburse them, it still remained a moot point at the moment.

            “Are you always so tense?” Padme asked, breaking her from her thoughts. Jinn motioned for them to head out, discussing something into the comm unit in his hands.

            “On the job? Yes,” she said. If Jinn spoke with Kenobi, then Wolf likely knew the situation already. “It keeps me alive.”

            “And Wolf helps you relax,” Padme said, blushing slightly but smiling all the same.

            “That and reading.”

            “You like to read?” Before should could respond, Hawk felt the Force reach out to her. She turned to see Jar Jar on the ground, pushing himself away from what appeared to be Anakin and a Dug arguing. The argument finished quickly, with Anakin helping Jar Jar stand. When the Gungan caught her eye, he looked away. Oh, the small room was looking better and better all the time.

            “Thank you for saving our friend,” Padme said to the little boy. His face grew red even as the smile threatened to overtake it.

            “It was nothing,” he said. He looked around then up at the sky.  “There’s a sand storm coming. Do you have a place to stay?”

            “Well –“ Hawk started but was quickly interrupted by Jinn.

            “Why do you ask?” Jinn said from beside her.

            “You could come with me,” Anakin’s eyes flickered over to Padme for a moment, “and wait it out there.”

            Jinn bowed toward him. “Thank you.” He motioned for Anakin to guide them. R2 and Padme followed first with Jar Jar hurrying behind them. “I will explain when we have a moment.”

            “You better,” Hawk growled even as the winds began to pick up. “We could have easily made it back to the hanger in time.”

            “You didn’t sense it?” Jinn asked. Sand burned her eyes and she squinted to keep it out as much as she could.

            “Does it matter if we get killed first?” Hawk shot back. Without much choice, she followed after her charge. Even if Jinn made poor decisions, she would not leave Padme undefended.

            The storm roared into Mos Espa. Sand on the ground and the air whipped around her, burrowing through the cracks in her armor. Where the others in the group where light cloth, she felt the burden of her protective gear grow with each step. Her eyes burned as she tried to track the movements of everything around her. Ducking her head, she reached out with the Force, opening herself to those around her. She let it guide her, the shadow fell back out of immediate danger, but it still danced on the edges of her senses. 

            Hawk made it with the rest of her group to the small hovel Anakin lived in with one other person. She tried to shake as much of the sand out of her armor, but without removing it she’d be stuck with the extra burden. She wouldn’t have a chance to remove it as long as they were off the ship. If she could get word to Wolf, then maybe her partner could assist, but for now, she’d tolerate it.

            Jinn smiled sympathetically at her before turning to greet their host, Shmi Skywalker.  Anakin already rushed past his mother to his room, dragging Padme and R2 with him. Giving up on emptying all of the sand, Hawk moved to make her own introductions. Jinn motioned for Shmi to head to the kitchen, and it became clearer they were going to be here for a while. Jinn’s fascination in this boy meant making the rest of them uncomfortable for the time being. Reaching up, Hawk started to work on the clasps of her armor, pulling off her chest piece to watch all the sand drain from it. A small pile gathered at her boots.  Hopefully, Wolf and Obi-Wan would have a better night than she was about to have.

**I0I**

Obi-Wan sat comfortable in the cantina, sipping on his second ardees. Inappropriate for Jedi under normal circumstances but in a place like this, it made him less of a concern for the locals. Despite his appearances and attitudes toward etiquette and regulations, a cantina offered a chance to relax. While his Master and Hawk searched the junk shops for the needed hyperdrive generator, Wolf dragged him and Sabe to investigate the locals, which invariably brought them here.

            He sipped the jawa juice Wolf bought him at the bar. She stayed there only for a few moments before leaving to talk with someone. He followed her even as Sabe tried to get comfortable within the local watering hole. The scene he watched from his seat at the bar played out a hundred times before, whether he was there or not. Wolf spoke with an armor-covered alien in hushed tones, probably about some job. What started as an animated conversation settled into a mild confrontation in harsh whispers and angry glares. Still, if she managed to get a job, she’d be more successful than he had been.

            “Is it always like this?” Sabe asked from beside him. The Queen – Padme – choose well in her decoys. Sabe physically looked like the queen, and under the appropriate garb, likely acted like the queen as well. But on her own, her own personality began to shine through.

            Sabe’s quick wit and observations offset her nervousness and caution. She remained quiet until the point where action was needed, and once there, acted decisively and without fear. Outside of the queen’s retinue, she relaxed more. It seemed the burden of the queen spread beyond just Padme’s shoulders, and while Sabe never made the decisions, it often would be her life on the line. Since the Trade Federation’s assault, this had been the first time she appeared as herself, mostly serving as decoy for the Queen to ensure the power of their government. Whether through bravery or selflessness, Obi-Wan silently applauded the younger woman.

            “Dangerous and most of the people drunk?” Obi-Wan asked, even as he sipped his drink. She nodded, her eyes scanning everyone and everything. “Not always, though I’ve been to worse places.” The Force echoed the approach before his senses could. He pushed an incoming drunk away from the bar before the man crashed into Sabe. Obi-Wan enjoyed the shocked look on her face as he took another sip.

            “And shouldn’t we be looking for a hyperdrive?” she whispered, leaning close to him.

            “The newer markets were already well above what a drive would cost back in the Core,” Obi-Wan admitted. Wolf made her way back to them, pushing through the groupings. He reached out with the Force to sense her emotions. Despite the turmoil on the surface, Wolf appeared at ease and as close to peace as she might ever achieve. “Time to leave.”

            “How do you know?” Sabe asked, standing up from her seat.

            “There’s a sandstorm coming,” Obi-Wan said, finishing his drink before sliding a few of the credits toward the bartender. Even if the junk shops didn’t take credits, a cantina always accepted money, as long as it was backed in some form.

            Sabe stood at his side, waiting for him to stand. “How can you tell?”

            “He glanced out the window,” Wolf said, appearing behind them. Obi-Wan turned, greeting her with a smirk as Sabe tried to calm herself down. “Ready to head back?”

            Obi-Wan turned to look around the bar once more. Without diving into the Force too deeply, he wouldn’t be able to sense much within the making himself known. His clock aided in hiding him from others, and in a place like this, people didn’t go looking for trouble unless they absolutely needed to or were in trouble themselves. Unfortunately for them, Wolf needed to court a little more, given the need for some type of tradable funds.

            Still, something kept him on his toes. His senses remained unaided by the Force, but he kept looking around for source of the eyes on his back. No one stood out at the moment but the sensations never left.

            “I know,” Wolf said before motioning toward the door. Sabe kept looking between them. She started to ask a question but Obi-Wan stopped her with a glare.

            The sand whipped and whirled around him as he stepped out of the cantina. The wind pushed against them, robes and cloth flying up and away. Had they not been attached or wore, undoubtedly the storm would have taken it from them. Ducking his head, he slowly moved through the oncoming sandstorm with Sabe behind him and Wolf at the rear. Sabe covered her eyes, desperate to maintain her sight as she fought to keep up with them. Obi-Wan turned to grab her hand, only to find Wolf already helping the handmaiden through the storm.

            As the townspeople and merchants scurried to hide, they fought their way back to the hanger. After he made sure Wolf kept Sabe with them, Obi-Wan kept his focus on moving forward. He shuffled his feet, one arm holding his cloak close to his body and the other up in front of his face to block even the tiniest amount of sand. The stung his eyes, reached into his dry mouth, and burned his throat. Still, he kept walking, straining against storm.

            The fifteen-minute walk to the cantina that they stretched for most of the morning took them nearly an hour. Between fighting against the door and dodging some stray pieces left in the market, stepping lightly required more effort than finding a place to hold out the storm. Obi-Wan reached the spaceport first, opening the doors to hurry Wolf and Sabe in. He struggled with the doors, his muscles straining against the further effort. The storm raged against him, trying to drag the doors open even as he tried to hold them shut. Another set of arms joined him, and then another before they finally managed to shut them both.

            Obi-Wan collapsed against the closed doors, breathing harder than some of the training sessions. He turned to see one of their security guards alongside of him. He gave the man a grin before turning to the other side, only to see Wolf struggling to stand back up. He managed first by pushing up off the floor.

            Offering her hand, Obi-Wan struggled to pull her back up. Sand poured from her armor as she righted herself, and continued to try and escape out of her as she moved slowly to Sabe’s side. “I would have gotten it eventually.”

            “Maybe,” he said. His skin burned under his touch, rubbed raw by the sand storm overtaking Mos Espa.

            “Not as glamorous as you though?” She asked. She bent over slightly, not enough to fall over but enough to start to assess the handmaiden’s condition. Obi-Wan knelt down, helping Sabe sit up while hoping to let Wolf continue.

            Sabe shook her head. “No. I – that was horrific.”

            “If we stayed out there much longer, it could have torn the flesh from our bones,” Wolf said. She slowly began to heal Sabe through the Force, the glow present to his senses. Wolf acted as a guide to the Force, her own light reaching out and soothing the sand burns. Her hands moved slowly over Sabe’s body, never touching her but brushing the Force close enough to mend her pain.

            He’d seen Wolf use bacta stim packs before, but never to heal with the Force. Both could and did leave scars, but remained effective in treating some of the most egregious wounds Obi-Wan saw. To use the Force to heal meant using one’s body as a conduit, transmitting the Force through compassion and kindness. Jedi healers trained years to perform the act, working only outside the temple when absolutely necessary. The energy used to maintain such a strong bond with the Force was taxing, but as Wolf finished she appeared at ease. The mystic energy weaved around her hands receded back into her, as if the Force understood their job was done.

            Wolf fell backward, off-balance and tired, but smiling nonetheless. “All better?”

            Sabe reached up with her hand, touching her face. “Much. How?”

            “I had my armor, Obi-Wan the Force,” Wolf said, shrugging her shoulders. Sand dropped out of the breaks in her armor, falling from her shoulder plates. “You had nothing, so it seemed only fair to help you heal a bit.”

            “And me?” Obi-Wan asked, offering Wolf another hand-up. Grasping her wrist, Obi-Wan pulled Wolf off the ground. She stood shakily, sand still falling out of her armor though at a slower pace. “The Force?”

            “Jedi are tougher than us ‘normal’ folk. Though, ‘normal’s just a setting on the dryer,” Wolf said with a smirk.  “Now, I need to get this off, and shower before we talk about today. Hawk back yet?”

            Obi-Wan shook his head. His master hadn’t commed him, and with the storm, he hoped they found shelter. “I will send out a message once the storm passes. Best to take the chance to clean up now.” Wolf stared at him for a moment before nodding.

            “With any luck, they might have found us a part,” Wolf said. She walked toward the Nubian yacht and passed Captain Panaka coming down the ramp. The two exchanged a silent nod before Panaka approached him.  Obi-Wan waited at the bottom of the ramp for the captain. He motioned for Sabe to head up as well, knowing that whatever the man wanted to share he may need to filter before talking with the handmaiden, if the grim look on his face was any indication.


	6. Pod Races and Bounties

Qui-Gon shut off the communicator before pocketing it. Once the sandstorm passed, Obi-Wan commed to discuss the recent message sent from Naboo. Despite not having the contact information for the Queen's yacht, it seems the Trade Federation possessed enough control at the moment to begin an information warfare on top of their blockade-turned-control of the planet. His Padawan relayed the main information: Governor Bibble spoke of the atrocities the Trade Federation were being subjected to. Or the supposed atrocities. The message was broken up by static and whatever else. Without any actual updates on the status of Naboo, the words would have to be taken as true, for now.

They spent the rest of the day with Anakin and his family, learning more about the boy's life. Qui-Gon kept quiet about the power he felt exuding from his tiny body. The Force was strong in him, stronger than anyone he had ever seen – even Wolf. Almost everyone held some power in the Force. It moved through everyone and everything. The Jedi utilized the Force to aid them in serving the universe and others. Taking a deep breath, he felt the Force flow through him, and astonishingly into the young boy only a few rooms away. He never met someone with such a connection to the Force before. Even Obi-Wan or Wolf paled in comparison to the untapped potential of the boy. As the day progressed, he learned more from and about Anakin.

Shim, Anakin's mother, offered them a modest meal, giving freely even though she had little, during which she offered some insight in a slave's life. Qui-Gon noted Hawk slipping several gems worth months of rations into a storage pot after lunch, even as Anakin attempted to draw everyone's attention onto him. The Force guided his attention back to the boy as well, as the discussion shifted from their lives as slaves to Podracing, which turned into a discussion of the Force and being a Jedi. He openly admitted to being there to head to Corsuscant, though withheld his mission. Hawk remained silent through most of the meal, while Anakin, when no speaking about Podracing, drew Padme into conversation. It was Padme who inadvertently brought up the idea of finding some weakness in the junk dealers: Gambling.

While Obi-Wan would have exercised caution, Qui-Gon let the Force guide him toward the solutions. The Force guided them to this planet, to this spaceport, to the junk shop, and ultimately to this boy. And now, this boy held a key to getting them off this planet and to Corsuscant.

The two suns of Tatooine had long set by the time the storm passed and now the pollution clear sky revealed the countless systems. Naboo remained up there in a quantum state, both in peril and safe. Both destroyed and saved. Free and enslaved all at once. So many systems remained in the same state, and it seemed that with each of his years passing, more and more became lost or unknown to him. This dispute turned to graphic violence (against the Naboo, the Trade Federation lost only droid soldiers) only further illustrated the dangers growing in Republic space.

"News from the hangar?" Qui-Gon turned from staring up at the night sky to see Hawk's silhouette in the doorway. Her armor discarded in favor of cleaning up in the sonic refresher for once the storm passed, and relaxing in 'the safety of a home,' as she described it.

"Yes, I am unsure if we should explain it to our companions," Qui-Gon said.

"Or to me," Hawk added without looking at him. She moved to stand at the balcony as well, though maybe half of a meter between them

"At this moment, no," he admitted. "There is nothing to be gained with you having this burden."

"We all carry burdens, and I think – no, I know, that a burden shared is a burden halved." Hawk said. She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her to stare up at the stars. "Is your decision going to harm the queen?"

Qui-Gon took a moment to consider his response. "No."

"Then it can wait," Hawk said, letting him off the hook. "I'd rather ask you about your interest in the boy."

"Anakin." The boy in question seemed to regaling Padme with more stories of his life again, much to Hawk's relief.

Hawk nodded at the name. "I'm not sure what you see in him."

"He is a child," Qui-Gon said, glancing back at the entryway. "And he may be able to assist us in leaving this planet."

"By what? Podracing? Gambling?" Hawk shook her head, her brow furrowed in anger. "You place the weight of our quest on a child? One that we have information on, I might add."

"Trust the Force," Qui-Gon said, though it fell on deaf ears. Despite her skill with sensing through the Force, Hawk never cared for the religion or the Jedi order. Not enough to hate the order, but her irritation often clouded her judgment. It was a shame both her and Wolf could not be trained as Jedi, despite their connection with the Force. "It has guided us here."

"The only guide we need is someone to point us out to the desert," she said, relaxing her glare a little. The exasperation in her voice kept wavering it, but she remained as calm as he could. "You're welcome to lose everything we've got on this errand. Be the greater fool, and lose our chance of saving Naboo. And place a boy's life in danger."

"You don't believe he could do it?" Qui-Gon asked. His voice remained calmed, though she named his fears.

Hawk scoffed, but didn't look at him. She stayed silent for a long time, staring up at the stars. When she did finally speak, her voice was no more than a harsh whisper. "Does it matter if he can? You asked him? A child like that, she'll – he will do anything for positive affirmation. He sees you as someone to look up to. To trust. He'll crawl to a moon and back, if he knew it made you happy."

"Speaking from experience?" Qui-Gon asked. He reached out in the Force to sense her turmoil. She rebuffed him, sending a short Force blast his way. Not enough to knock him off balance, not that she could, but enough to break his concentration.

"Another thing? The manipulation may work on the average joe on the street, but don't try it on me," Hawk said. Her anger flared exponentially, her eyes darkened to match the night, and he could have sworn he felt the air crackle. He held up his hands, trying to reassure her of his intent.

"I apologize," he said. "I only wanted to reassure you I mean no ill will."

Hawk glared at him a moment, her anger still bubbling. Unlike Jedi, who if they indulged in their emotions could turn to the Dark Side, Hawk remained firm in her morality. Her anger bled off into the Force, expending itself as an infinite source it seemed. His senses still reaching out felt the emotions being released rather than being used as fuel for greater strength and control. By the time she managed to calm down, he wondered if she could channel the anger into a something deadlier than a glare, though he never would admit to cowering slightly beneath her gaze.

"Ill will or not, don't do it again," she said. He nodded again, if only to keep her calm. He frequently utilized the manipulative influences of the Force, not for ill will but gentle persuasion helped smooth some interactions out. For her to equate the sensing of a state of mind to influencing another troubled him. Hawk easily recognized how the Force reached out and surrounded her, as well as others. Someone must have attempted such a manipulation early in her self-study for to respond so aggressively. "We're heading out at first light."

Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. "We?"

"Wolf and I," Hawk amended. "We've got a lead on a few worthwhile bounties. They shouldn't take more than a day or two."

"Back in time for the Bantina Eve?"

"Does it matter?" Hawk asked. "If you win, we'll recoup our losses from this trip. If not, then we should have enough to buy a new vessel. It may not be a yacht, but it will get us back to Naboo."

Hawk appeared to have a plan, one she kept silent about for reasons likely to revolve around her perceptions of Jedi. He reviewed the Jedi Masters and Knights at the Temple five years ago, trying to find the source of her distrust. Troubling, the list grew longer the more he considered the Jedi's actions over the years. More and more, they were called into resolve disputes and those disputes often turned to violence. If this was the image of the Jedi, the bloody negotiator, then distrust would be among the smallest emotional response he expected from others. Their calm demeanors and supposed lack of attachment meant creating few lasting bonds that allowed to transcend public opinion, let alone perceived and real missteps by Jedi.

They needed to move beyond such emotions, especially if they wanted to work together. He always admired Hawk and Wolf for blazing their own trail when the Jedi Council denied them training. Despite not being Jedi, they still were students of the Force, finding methods that worked for them and not denying themselves the gifts they were given. Those early few months when he watched Hawk swoop through the libraries in the temple and Wolf pounce on opponents in the training room, he wondered what life they lived before the Force brought them here. They perceived the world so different, but kept quiet council, as if they were afraid to interfere with others. For them to take jobs as bounty hunters seemed ironic, but it may be more about justice and fairness than making waves. The Force guided them even if the Jedi failed to.

"I am glad you came along," Qui-Gon finally said. Hawk's eyebrows nearly moved into her hairline as she stared at him. He chuckled, smiling at her bewilderment. "You have a very different perspective then me, and sometimes, I admit to going along with events more than I should."

"Well, I never was good about not having a plan," Hawk said. It wasn't an apology, rather an admittance of shared stubbornness. "Wolf tends to be the more guns blaring type."

"I never would have guessed," Qui-Gon said. Such methods were not typical of those who could see the Unifying Force and Hawk barely seemed a typical student of the Living Force, but the Force worked in mysterious ways sometimes. Guiding those that needed it, even if they could not sense it. To others, it would be destiny, duty, or maybe even obligation that drove them forward, for Jedi the Force represented their connection with the universe and guided them through their entire lives.

"Yeah, well, we work together for a reason," Hawk said. She pushed off the railing and moved toward the door. "I am going to grab Padme and encourage the boy to sleep. You've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

Qui-Gon watched her leave back through the entryway. Despite the storm raging inside of her moments before, she never appeared out of control. Glancing back up at the stars, he considered once again if this path the Force laid before him was the correct one. Hawk's concerns were valid. They were placing a great deal of faith in this young boy to succeed. Opening himself to the Force, he sought answers to his questions, answers he may never actually receive.

Instead, the Force only gave him the pull toward the boy. It stretched outward and across the universe, but the directions given to him were to trust this boy. Qui-Gon wondered what the Force saw in the young boy, just outside the age of traditional apprentices but not unreasonable. If the Force was strong in him, maybe Qui-Gon was brought here to bring the Jedi Temple. Or maybe there was something more, something the Force wanted out of Anakin to give him such strength and talent with the Force, all with a lack of training. He may not tap into it knowingly, but now that Qui-Gon met him, Anakin was open to the Force. Any lack of training now could draw him to the darkside.

For better or worse, Anakin's fate was now tied to his. The Force brought him here, and now he was left with the choice of how to proceed. Qui-Gon turned to stare up at the stars again. No answer would be there, no answer in the Force either. Everything seemed just so small.

**I0I**

Wolf doubled checked their rented speeder. After Hawk spent the night in the slave quarters watching over Padme, she returned to the hanger to give them an update and receive one about the status of Naboo. Hawk listened patiently to Obi-Wan as he explained the transmission from the planet, nodding along in the right places. To anyone else, she silently agreed with the plan to continue staying here. To Wolf, Hawk silently displayed the subtle but vehement disagreement, the stiffening of her body, crossing of arms, creases in her forehead. All signals that the other bounty hunter didn't want to show but ones Wolf caught from years of memorizing her every move. Even the armor signaled her discomfort with the proceedings.

Wolf felt Obi-Wan moved closer through the Force even before he verbally signaled her. "Everything set?" She turned to look at the Padawan, waving back in greeting. He appeared rested, a contrast to the handmaidens and the security forces the queen brought with her from Naboo. Even Captain Panaka was on edge, walking the perimeter of the hangar as if to ward off intruders by pure glare alone.

"Just about," Wolf said, tapping the containers with rations and water. Both of them had quite a bit in their suits, and this just provided them a resource to either trade or use in case of emergency. They rarely used the latter, but Hawk always preached caution, and her lectures never steered her wrong. "You going to be okay?"

"You mean holed up in a hangar waiting for my Master to finish complete another odd task? Yes. I am," he said, stepping closer to the speeder. "You'd be surprised at how often this has occurred to us."

"I thought most Masters didn't leave their Padawans alone for too long." Wolf looked up at him in surprise.

"On missions, maybe," he said, "but at the temple, we are left to our studies when our Masters don't need us. Some are more particular than others, but Qui-Gon has allowed me a lot of latitude in my training."

"Really?" Wolf turned back to tightening a strap. "Huh."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just – that's not the impression I got from the Jedi," Wolf said. "Back from where I – where we came from, Earth, we more professors than sense it seemed. More students too."

"You don't talk about your home planet often," Obi-Wan said. He leaned up against the speeder as she continued to tighten the straps. Not that they need it, but it gave her hands something to do. "Even when you first came here."

"Well, had to learn the language and all." Wolf remembered struggling the first month from trying to learn to speak Basic, let alone read it. The Force reached out to her, surrounding her and welcoming her into the strange new world, but at the time, she didn't know it was the Force – she knew it as the magic. She lived it, breathed, and for the first time, felt it as something greater than just inside of her. She felt at home here, like it was Hogwarts, but greater than that.

The only connection back home was the friends she left behind. If Hermione wasn't by her side, maybe her life here would be different. Maybe she wouldn't be alive even. She'd be struggling, fighting to find herself again in this new world, this new life. She found love, and happiness, and purpose outside of being a martyr.

Obi-Wan watched for as she finished working. She never enjoyed the silence before coming to this galaxy. Growing up with the Dursleys, silence meant trouble coming her way, though most things in the house meant trouble for her. With Obi-Wan, silence offered calmness. Not quite like still waters, but more of a summer day after a storm. The turbulence passed in the silence, as if the storm of her life died off now that she was away from the Wizarding World. She thought of responding, of offering further explanations to the Padawan about her home life, but Hawk's approach cut off any thoughts.

"I've convinced your Master for you to attend the podrace," Hawk said, plopping down her back of supplies on the speeder.

"Really? I thought he would rather I spend it here," Obi-Wan said, though a small smile appeared on his face. The handmaidens onboard the yacht enjoyed teasing him, not quite getting the young man to blush, but it did offset him a little.

"Which is why I convinced him otherwise," Hawk said. "A young man standing around a hangar during the biggest event of the season is suspicious. You may have to stick around here for next day or so, but you'll attend the event with your 'father.'"

Obi-Wan bowed to her. "Thank you. I do wish to meet the young pilot."

"Young being the operative word." Hawk glanced at Wolf. "Everything ready to go?"

"Just waiting on you love," Wolf said as she climbed into the pilot's seat. "Take care of everyone, Obi. They're going to need it."

"You see something?" Obi-Wan asked. He first taught her to mediate, despite his claims about hating it, and how to connect with the Force, or rather, he successful taught her as the other Jedi Masters failed to help her. She naturally felt a connection with the Unifying Force, drawing a sense of wonder from how it stretched beyond space and time. Most nights, she dreamt of Hawk in battle, of other Jedi standing ready to defend another person. She reached out to them, trying to channel her hope and power into them. Almost always, they would strike harder, faster, only for her to wake up in a cold sweat. Obi-Wan's skill with the Force offered him greater control, and the Force rewarded him with glimpses of the future from time to time. Wolf's rewards were just hunches, short mirages of Christmases Yet to Come, or more appropriate of battles yet to be fought. Still, sometimes that was enough for her.

Wolf shrugged her shoulders, only offering him a smile. "That bad feeling still there?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan said.

"Then nothing you don't already know," Wolf said, waving him to stand back. Hawk climbed up onto the speeder, wrapping her arms around Wolf's armor plated torso.

"Not too fast," Hawk whispered, despite not needing to what with the microphones in their helmets.

"Well, a little too fast," Wolf whispered back, smirking as she turned back to Obi-Wan. "We'll see you in two days. Right after we kill a few bad guys." Opening the throttle, Wolf shot out of the hanger. Hawk tightened her grip, but Wolf knew she was smiling in her helm.

Wolf guided the speeder through the spaceport. Merchants and other people became blurs as they passed by. Twisting the handle bars, she flew between two stalls and out into the desert air. Had they been unprotected, it would have burned their skin, but their armor warded them from the potential danger. Sand and wind blew past them, whipping them as Wolf opened herself up to the Force.

Hermione saw the world in moments, memorizing everything and calmly calculating her responses. Qui-Gon acted as conduit of the Force, letting it guide his every action. Obi-Wan connected to the Force, seeking and speaking to the cosmic network. Everyone saw and felt the Force differently, and maybe it was a part of her magic or her beliefs or just who she was, but when Jenna connected, it wasn't the images she memorized or the moments guided to her or even how she connected to it. For her, she felt the emotions and thoughts and impressions of her target through the Force. She linked up with them, and followed those sensations to the target, for better or worse.

Their target was a human slaver, and worse, a pederast. Went by the name Trickler, thought to be an alias. The last known location was Mos Espa, and the bounty was only recent placed by someone in the Core. Hermione reviewed the choice, and gathered even more information off the Holo-Net after searching for most of the morning. She was pale when she handed Jenna an info-padd with the relevant information. There was more, but she never shared it. The last time Hermione shared information both deemed 'unnecessary,' Wolf ended up nearly blowing up an entire spaceport getting at their target, and maybe most of their target too (bastard completely deserved, no matter what Hermione said).

Trickler specialized in capturing children from noble families from their homes and selling them to the highest bidder. He'd already taken children from families on Alderan, Corellia, and even Corsuscant. Sometimes, he'd return the kidnap kids for a huge ransom, sometimes not. Even if he did, there were no guarantees the children came back unharmed or at all. The man finally messed with the wrong family, as it seems they put out a large enough bounty to get noticed.

They were blurs in the desert, passing over sand and between rock terrain. Wolf kept watch through the Force, drawing closer to the scent of the target. It burned her being, much like a pungent smell burned her nostrils. The ground grew rockier and the burning sensation grew stronger, darker, as if a shade of evil reached out its tendrils grasping for purchase. As the day wore on, the twin suns dropping in the horizon, she felt glimpses of light within the shade that Trickler.

Wolf tightened her grip on the handlebars, sending their speeder to dangerous speeds. She entered a canyon, twisting and spinning through the snaking route left by water and wind from millennium of movement. She pushed them forward around a turn, their feet brushing against the rocks even as they continued past speeds for the sane. Hawk's grip drew her back from the shades of danger in front of her, slowing them down marginally. "Love?"

"He has kids," Wolf growled. "He took someone else's baby."

"How much further?" Hawk said, pulling her head off of Wolf's shoulder. Her voice whispered the words but the hardness grounded them both. Wolf didn't offer an response, as her sense brought her as close as they could get for the moment.

Wolf pulled the speeder to a stop at the base of a canyon. The rocky outgrowths grew up around them, reaching to the sky. Jagged shapes shot out of the canyon walls, daring anyone to try and land at the base. Sundown still hours away, but little light trickled to the floor. No growths besides the dead shrugs stretching to the sky. Before them was the entrance to a cave, hidden from above by a large mountain shard slicing through the canyon. The stones around the entrance created the image of a giant teeth, ready to clamp down those who dared to passed into its throat. Without the suns to warm them, it should be freezing but warm air breathed from the cave.

Most of the day was spent traveling at speeds others considered dangerous. For Jenna, they were a comfortable reminder of things that didn't change. Nightfall may be only a few hours off, but they needed to move fast to catch up with Trickler. No other bounty hunters would take their target, but the clock still ticked away. The shadows were growing; the darkness was coming. Jenna hoped they could stay a little longer in the light, even as they stepped into the unlit cave.

"Yeah, that's a good sign," Hawk drawled, removing her blaster from her side. Wolf glanced at it and then her two. None of the items were custom with no distinctive abilities or style (not like their armor), and if they were planning on working much longer here, maybe they'd get the Jedi or the Naboo government to toss some funds for services rendered. But the cloak of darkness spreading through the Force kept wailing of home, reaching closer and closer. Seeing the future wasn't Wolf's forte, and yet she knew not to ignore the warning from the Force. A bad feeling only brushed the darkened storm growing in the Force, and if the warning was right, Wolf and her may not be there to help.

Ignoring the thoughts of the future to deal with the problems of the present, Wolf drew her blasters, raising them up with the left slightly in front of her right. "Not backing out now."

"Never love," Hawk said. She moved first, stepping across the threshold even as Wolf kept reaching through the Force. Hawk's helmet remained facing forward, but she knew her eyes were scanning everything. Reaching past the burning sensations of the Trickler's shade, Wolf wrapped Hawk in her own comforting light. The small slump in Hawk's shoulders left as she stood straighter, her steps firmer. Her blaster drew even as she walked a little faster. Quickening her pace to match, Wolf kept reaching forward trying to find the source of all those painful emotions.

The shade grew larger as they walked through the darkened stone throat. Stalactites dripped from the ceiling, growing larger as the shade drew closer. Hawk held up her hand as the pain from the shade grew nearly unbearable. Wolf quickly withdrew her senses from the Force, but not before Hawk sent her love back through their connection.

"'But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough hate to suffice,'" Hawk quoted. Without even reaching her senses into the Force, Wolf felt her partner's emotions drain out of her. It left her open to protecting Wolf, and let Wolf easily reach back to heal either of them if needed. Bacto and med packs worked fine, but healing through the Force required a sense of serenity and balance – for both parties. "Fifty meters, and there's a bend to the left. We follow that, we find him."

"Lines up with the shade," Wolf whispered back. "And to the right?"

They reached the bend in the throat. At the left, light danced at another turn, no doubt where Trickler made camp. "What?"

"Leaves on the tree, Hawk," Wolf said. Often focusing so much on the details, Hawk missed things. Like the scuttling and scratching of claws coming their way.


	7. Opening Gambit

            Obi-Wan focused on the calm surrounding him. Mediating in the sun was nothing new for him, but Qui-Gon suggestion to do so while others worked rankled him. Although he wasn’t experienced with repairs as some other Jedi, he certainly knew enough to work on most spaceships, let alone the pod-racers. Still, his Master insisted he practice his mediation instead of assisting the others. Qui-Gon often cautioned him to be both patient and open to the present, two ideas he felt conflicted one another. He wanted to grumble or complain about it, but there was no point: His Master gave him an order, and he followed the orders as best as he could. He found a rock a dozen meters away to rest upon. He knelt down and opened himself up to the Force.   
            The wonder surrounded him, as light and darkness melded into one. Not dualistic, but complimentary aspects of the Force. With each breath, he let himself go deeper, opening himself to the connections touching everything. As he did, he saw the shadow writhing in the darkness, hidden from everyone. Turning his gaze to it, he tried to make out a shape, a feeling, something, but the vast shadow only distorted the Force. The Dark Side, an aberration of the Force, wrestled in the darkness. He reached out, just for a moment, hoping to find the source and –  
            Sand!  
            Sputtering as sand replaced everything in his senses, Obi-Wan fell out of his connection with the Force and grounded himself in the now. He struggled to open his eyes, blinded by the grains. It fell into his mouth, into his teeth, and down his throat. He choked on it even as he tried to wipe it from his eyes. All around him was sand - except for the gentle laughter of a young woman.  
            The laughter remained a constant even as the sand fell away. He finally cleared his eyes to see the source of the melody standing in front of him, a bucket in her hand.  “What?”  
            Padme held a hand over her mouth as her laughter died down to a giggle. The smile bloomed on her face. “Master Qui-Gon suggested to test your attention.”  
            “Did he?” Obi-Wan said. He stood up, brushing the sand off his clothes. It seems his Master’s lessons never truly ended. And not even on the Outer Rim or in the middle of a desert. “Well, I must thank him.”  
            “What were you doing?” Padme asked him as he stepped off the rock. Qui-Gon looked over from where he stood by Anakin’s podracer. His master’s fascination with the young boy bothered him, but not in the sense it would for most people. Qui-Gon must see something, or the Force guided him toward something about the boy. And as usual, his master kept his own council, not revealing what he saw or felt. Obi-Wan noticed how much attention his Master gave the young boy since they met, constantly watching over him.   
            “Mediating,” Obi-Wan said, “and I need to work on my spatial awareness it seems.” He slipped his hands into his robe sleeves as he started back toward Qui-Gon. Padme hurried to catch up with him, leaving the bucket at the rock.   
            “Is it difficult? Being a Jedi?”   
            Obi-Wan shook his head. “No, but I have been training for years. Things that look and feel easy for me are things I’ve worked at for a long time. Just as you’ve studied to prepare you to rule Naboo, Jedi train for the rigors of our life.”  
            “And Hawk and Wolf?” Padme asked. He stopped their short trek to focus on her.   
            “That is not necessarily my story to tell,” he said, pausing and thinking over his words. “I – I know they struggled when we first met.”   
            “How? They look so…in control right now.” Padme stared up at him, silently asking for more. Obi-Wan glanced over at Qui-Gon. His master had once again turned his attention to Anakin. Although he had no experience with mechanics, there were some Jedi who naturally excelled at fixing items. He read several journals within the library of other Jedi’s abilities and inclinations to machines. Some Jedi instinctively understood machines, from starships to droids to even podracers. It was possible Anakin was one of those Force sensitives. Without training, his skills would grow, but he wouldn’t be a Jedi. He couldn’t. He was too old, too attached, too emotional, too all the things the Code warned about. And yet, the Force favored the young child. He sensed that much in his brief mediation.   
            “They are, but I think…I think they have to be,” Obi-Wan said, shifting his gaze back to Padme. “They haven’t had it easy, and they’ve both put up facades to deal with the lives they live.”  
            “So Hawk isn’t always as hard?”   
            “No, she isn’t, and rarely around Wolf,” Obi-Wan said. “We…the Jedi were not unkind, but not as welcoming as we could have been.”  
            “We? Or them?” Padme asked, her eyes flickering back to Qui-Gon. “Wolf is pretty taken with you.”  
            “And Hawk knows nothing is going to happen,” Obi-Wan said, stopping her train of thought. “She is…she is like my sister in many ways, though admittedly I have more in common with Hawk.”  
            “Those aren’t their real names are they?” Padme asked. Obi-Wan opened his mouth to respond, but let his lips silently closed as the Force reached out to him. He held up a hand, stopping her from asking more questions as he turned to meet the gaze of their young pilot.   
            “Hello Anakin,” he said, bowing slightly in greeting.  “How is the pod-racer?”  
            “Good.” The boy looked between them both before glaring at Obi-Wan. “What are you talking about?”  
            “She was asking about some friends of ours,” Obi-Wan said. “I believe you met one yesterday: Hawk.”  
            “Yeah,” Anakin said, kicking some dirt on the ground. “She didn’t say much, and glared at Qui-Gon a lot.”  
            Obi-Wan tried not to laugh, but Padme didn’t have the same restraint. She giggled, not quite the laughter when she dumped sand on him, but her face still light up. “She is rather…reserved.”  
            “And you’re not, Padawan?” Padme asked through her giggles.  
            “As much is needed,” he said, bowing to her again. He turned back to meet Anakin’s glare, though he looked just as confused. “Are we ready for the race?”  
            Anakin nodded quickly, smiling now that he was the center of attention again. “Just about. We need a few more parts.” He turned to speak with Padme, ignoring Obi-Wan completely. It’s always the pretty ones that draw the boys. He caught Padme’s eyes over Anakin, and shared another smile with her before beginning to walk back to the pod racer.   
            “Your mediation still needs work,” Qui-Gon said upon his approach. Obi-Wan let out a sigh, but nodded at his master’s gentle rebuke.  
            “Yes Master,” he said. He moved to stand next to the older Jedi, watching Padme keep Anakin’s attention. “Have you figured out your fascination with the boy yet?”  
            “The Force calls to him,” Qui-Gon said, shaking his head. “But this is not the first time the Force has spoken of someone, is it?”   
            Obi-Wan let his memories drift to Nar Shaddaa five years ago: Hawk and Wolf arrived, but they were not the Hawk and Wolf he knew. They were still two girls, lost and afraid. Obi-Wan remembered waking up the night before, the Force crying out loudly at him. His slumber vanished as he tried to find his calm, but the Force kept reaching from him, trying to prepare him. Qui-Gon experienced something similar, but not to the extent Obi-Wan felt. He tried to remain calm throughout their day on Nar Shaddaa, searching for a contact who may have information on a Prophecy Qui-Gon obsessed over.   
            The contact disappeared into the ether as the Force converged a hundred or so meters before them. They had arrived on the level to speak with another set of merchants, only to rush into the gangs and crowds as the Force shrieked, and then two young girls screamed. Obi-Wan remembered seeing Hermione, for she was still the young wide-eyed believer then, kneeling next to Jenna, pushing the other girl and begging her to wake up. Even if he couldn’t understand their language, their anguish and fear echoed through the Force as Hermione’s anguished cries subsided.  Obi-Wan nearly froze under the pressure of the Force but overcame the sensations as he approached the girls.  
            The Force wrapped around both of them, holding them close and exuding from their bodies as if living embodiments of the cosmic entity. When the black-haired girl woke up, she sat up with a shot before screaming loud enough to shatter glass. Her voice echoed through the Force, sending a crisp burst through him, Qui-Gon, and probably every being within the immediate vicinity. He recovered quickly, moving to wrap the black-haired girl in his cloak even as Qui-Gon did the same for the brunette. Their querry forgotten as they tried to exude calmness to ward off the fear radiating from the girls. It worked to a point, but Obi-Wan still remembered the vibrations through the Force as the Jedi led the girls away from the crowds. It somehow both haunted him and held his faith in the Force.  
            Over the next few months, the girls learned Basic, about the Force, and then struck out on their own. That was an oversimplification of their experience, but he couldn’t dwell on the past too much without foregoing the present, or at least, that was how Qui-Gon explained it. Obi-Wan would rather not remember his guilt for not doing more to help two people the Force brought to them. The next time he met them, they were no longer Jenna or Hermione, but Wolf and Hawk, or as they introduced themselves Hawk and Wolf. The order didn’t matter to him, but it was the name they were known by through the Bounty Hunters Guild. He silently kept track of them over the years, reaching out when he could and offering as much support as a padawan could.  They never blamed him, thankfully, but Obi-Wan may always blame himself for not doing more and not seeing more at the time, though he still didn’t know what he should have seen.   
            As the Force brought them to Jenna and Hermione, so too did it bring them to Anakin. The worries of training someone so old in the Force still rose within him, but he was much younger than either of the girls were when they arrived in the Temple. They also possessed training of some type in the Force, though they never spoke of the training, as they managed to perform feats only Jedi should have been able to. Anakin felt similar, and yet different at the same time.  
            Both Hawk and Wolf were calm points in the storm within the Force, much like Jedi were supposed to be, but the storm raged in them, whirling and encircling. Anakin was the storm, violent and beautiful, dangerous and enticing. The Force chose them, but whereas Hawk and Wolf had some training and managed to maintain a delicate balance without giving into the shadow of the Dark Side, Anakin lacked even that. His potential surpassed everyone Obi-Wan ever saw, but he was too old to begin training. Moreover, he was still a slave, and they were without means to free him. Should they survive this endeavor, Obi-Wan wondered if his Master would return to free Anakin, to train him? Would Obi-Wan be given the chance to take the trials? Or would he be cast aside, again?   
            Part of Obi-Wan needled at the thought of his Master taking another padawan. That part of him, the jealous and envious part never stayed for long. He released the anger into the Force, as dwelling on the emotions only served to fester them. When he was ready, he would become a knight. Not before, and not after. Releasing a deep breath, he nodded as the emotions fell away, leaving him with the serenity of the Force.   
            “No Master,” he said as Padme finally convinced Anakin to return to work. The young boy sprinted off, a smile painted on his face as he began to putter around the starboard engine again. He turned completely to face his master, arching an eyebrow in question. “And sand?”  
            “Water is lacking on Tatooine,” Qui-Gon said with a smile before leaving him to head back indoors. He knew his Master well enough to know he was scanning the horizon even as he left them alone. Obi-Wan left himself open, hoping to remain in the present.   
            Padme kept watching Anakin. Her eyes never moved as she spoke to him, but the words weren’t for him. They needed to be voiced, more for herself than him. “We’ll be ready, for all the good it will do us.” Her voice dropped to a whisper at the end of the sentence, as if she was afraid of any other possibility.   
            “Trust in the Force,” Obi-Wan said, drawing her attention to him. She stared at him questioning eyes.  “It has guided us here so far.”   
            “The Force guided us to gamble everything on a race?” She asked incredulously.   
            “In motion, the future is,” Obi-Wan said, smiling a little as he quoted the Grand Master. “Besides, we didn’t bet everything.” He motioned toward the pod-racer before walking slowly there. Padme followed after a few silent seconds before matching his pace.   
            “From what I understand, Qui-Gon bet my ship,” she said, rolling her eyes.   
            “And Hawk and Wolf ensured we will not walk away with nothing,” Obi-Wan countered. Padme paused at this, biting her lower lip. “Do you think they would have left us on a whim?”  
            “No, of course not – it’s just…you hired them to assist us, and they –“  
            “They are not here,” Obi-Wan finished. She nodded, anger still festering in her eyes. “They are doing what they can to help, just as you are doing what you can.”  
            “I know,” Padme snapped, her hands drawn up into fists. She let out a long sigh, trying to release the tension in a single breath. “I know. It’s just…they’re doing something. And we’re just waiting here, all our hopes resting on a boy that we’re not even sure will win. A boy that anywhere else would have been free.” The unspoken ‘to be a Jedi’ surprised him, but Obi-Wan quickly was beginning to learn not to underestimate Padme’s perception. She saw more than some Masters did. A powerful tool for a politician, but she tempered it with her heart. She ached to do something, anything to help the slave. Whatever her background, she was ill-prepared for the harsh realities of the Outer Rim.   
            Obi-Wan glanced over at Anakin. The boy remained engrossed in fixing some part of one of the twin engines. “Best not let him hear that. It would do no good for him to hear our fears.”  
            “I just wish…”   
            “I know,” Obi-Wan said. They stood in silence, watching Anakin work steadily on his pod-racer. He tried reaching out with the Force, hoping for some guidance in the moment, but alas it eluded him. “Things will work out, milady. I must return to my mediation,” he said, bowing to her.   
            “I hope it helps,” Padme said, still looking lost.  
            “At the very least, I’m sure you will get another laugh out of it,” Obi-Wan said, alluding to the potential for more sand being thrown his way. A smile replaced the frown on her face. “Milady,” he slightly bowed again before taking his leave and returning to his spot on the rock.   
            Eyes followed him as he walked away. His Master’s careful and retrospective eyes watched from inside, piercing his back as if to see his past and all of his failings. A young boy’s curious and intrigued eyes peered up from his work, in awe and cautious of his current abilities. A young woman’s troubled and lost gaze followed his path back to the rock, reasonably afraid but determined nonetheless.   
            With his gaze on the horizon, Obi-Wan crossed his legs and settled back on the rock. He sunk back into the Force, opening himself up to the cosmic connections. Everyone had something to work on, and for him, that meant being the lighthouse in the storm. The bad feeling from Naboo only grew stronger with the passing hours, and against the frail plan to win a pod-race, Obi-Wan reached out to Wolf or Hawk, hoping to find them even across the desolate wastes of Tatooine.  
            What he found sent shivers down his spine.  
            The shadow was here. Snapping his eyes open, he stared at the horizon. He instinctively grasped for his lightsaber. His fingers brushed the hilt, shaking under the emotions brought on by the shadow.  The fear ran through him even as the Force reached out in warning. It filled him, pushing out his fear with its light even as he felt the malevolence of the shadow growing. Wind rushed around him as he dove from the deep mediation into a commune with the Force.   
There was nothing on the horizon, except the setting of the suns. No danger, no shadow, nothing but the hills and mountains and deserts. Nothing out there except the native life, the shadow, and Hawk and Wolf. He tried to see their path out of the hanger, tried to follow them, but he grasped too much at the now rather than the past. Mindful of the shadow, he needed to see more. He needed to try, if only so he could save his friends.  He closed his eye, letting his hand drop from the saber now that no immediate threat was near. The commune grew stronger as he sunk deeper into the cosmic power.  
            Glimpses of potential filled his mind’s eye but only through the shadow. As if the Dark Side clouded his perception of the future. A battle with a red saber – no two blades against a green and a blue. Then just the blue, followed briefly by just the green. A fire burning in the night, whispers about only two. He saw…he saw…  
            Those same senses caught the approaching footsteps, and the gentle toss of sand. He let the Force surround him, shielding him from the elements bombarding him. The sand whirled around him, twisting and shifting as it covered his shield – not unlike the water did at the Temple when he mediated. Letting himself come back to the ground, Obi-Wan opened his eyes to catch Padme staring at him in awe through the shifting sand.  
            Raising his hand, Obi-Wan he pushed the sand aside, letting it fall around him but never touching him. “Is my Master still inside?” He kept his voice even despite the tendrils of fear still wrapping around him. He stood as calmly as he could. He wanted to shake the chills away, to throw up as nausea finally hit him. He wanted to do so many things, but he had a duty to the Force and his Master.    
            “Yes,” Padme said, nodding as she watched him stand. “He should be.”  
            Obi-Wan nodded in response before heading back in that direction. Padme followed him after a few moments of indecision. He still had time to return to the hangar, where he planned on spending the night, but now it would be imperative to do so. His Master would make the final decision, but leaving the others unprepared against the shadow, against the red blades, was not something he could stand by and let happen.   
**I0I**  
            With only moments to think, Hawk opened herself to her magic and enhanced her sight. She tracked the young krayt dragon’s movement. It sent rock and dirt flying with its shuffling gait. Its feet pounded the ground beneath. The walls vibrated with each step. A shower of light dust and rubble fell in its wake. A jaw filled with teeth snapped at them as it approached. Raising her blaster, Hawk focused on finding her center.  
            The world slowed – relatively speaking – as she focused on the stampeding krayt. The darkness in the tunnel aided the creature, but their helmets offered an equivalent to night-vision. With the monster rushing from the darkness, illumination far behind them but reflected down the tunnel, the night-vision offered more detail and reduced the chances of misinformation being encoded.  In green and blacks, Hawk found the monster rushing their way.  
            She gauged the distance from her -  fifteen meters and closing. She tracked the angle – just a drop of a few degrees. Then, she aimed her blaster. The krayt’s leathery hide cracked with each step. Its sharp teeth drew her attention for a brief millisecond. The snap of the jaw shifted her focus back to the krayt. Her aim steadied as she took a breath. In and out. Short, then long. And in that moment just before she released the breath, just before her heart beat, she pulled the trigger. Her aim was steady. The resistance from the trigger barely phased her. An ounce of pressure was all it took. The would-be-red bolt fired from her blaster, rushing toward the krayt’s eye.  
            The bolt slammed into the dragon’s skull, sending it into a skid. Momentum carried it the remaining six-point-four-five meters to her feet, dirt and rocks spraying underneath its body. She stepped to the side, letting the dragon slam into wall with a loud thud as Wolf unleashed a torrent of blaster fire.   
            Green bolts ricocheted off the rough hide. Hawk calculated the angles of deflection, side stepping one that came too close to her. The bolts struck the cavern walls, dispersing into the darkness around her. She barely paid them any attention. She had to remain focused. Hawk tossed out one plan after another. She tracked the shift in the krayt’s step. The slight stumble and blind swipes with its jaw. Unpredictability was the enemy. Wolf kept up the fire, even as krayt struggled to its feet. Its hide rippled beneath the bolts, greens splashing off wildly.   
            Hawk stepped in front of Wolf as the krayt turned to them. She fired off several shots, not aiming at the beast but the ground beneath it. The bolts forced the krayt into another skid, stopping meters in front of them – just within the range of her flamethrower.  
            Blaster still in hand, she raised her left gauntlet to unleash the torrent of flame. The fire breathed outward in a mockery of what the krayt claimed to be. It burnt the ground, the air, the krayt. The fire danced in front of her. It taunted the krayt even as it pushed a retreat. Roaring, the krayt dragon tried to back up, only to be met with a barrage of missile fire.   
            Letting up the flamethrower, Hawk peered through the smoke released by Wolf’s missiles. She watched the krayt stumble under the pressure. Her eyes tracked the movement even as she stepped around to force the creature back to against the wall.  
            Two meters –  fifteen seconds - Wolf let up with the missiles. Black and green bolts flew from their blasters, striking the weak underside of the krayt’s hide.  
If they had more time, maybe they’d be quieter in their take down. Maybe they wouldn’t have to waste supplies. But they needed this to end quickly. Trickler had to know they were there  
            One meters – eight seconds - a missile struck through the hide and stuck inside of it.   
            Hawk felt an arm around her waist. Her shield would hold, maybe, and her armor definitely would against the blast from that fusion missile. But her love cared too much to let her try and be the hero. She lost too many people for her not to try and save Hawk.  
            One second – the missile flashed once before it exploded in a thunder of hide, flesh, and blood.  
            Wolf pulled her behind a stalagmite, skidding on the rocky ground of the cavern. Heat from the blast blew past them, drenching them in a stiffness not found in the air on the planet. Hawk grunted from the sudden meeting with the ground, and felt herself let go of the magic that enhanced her eyesight. The arm holding her pulled closer, wrapping the smaller body around her.   
            “Well,” Hawk said, trying to ignore the sweat now pooling in her suit. Her heart settled back in her chest, no longer pounding from the rush of adrenaline. She let out a few shallow breaths before breathing everything out of her lungs. “That was…”  
            “Yeah sorry,” Wolf muttered without letting her go.   
            “Think they know we’re here?” Hawk moved her head to glance at the remains of the dragon. She tapped her helmet with her free hand, lighting up the tunnel with a small flashlight. She blinked at the overwhelming source before turning off the night vision before needing to blink again at the devastation brought about by the fusion missile. “You going to let me up?”  
            “In a moment,” Wolf said. Hawk felt Wolf’s magic reaching out to her own, cataloging all the pain and aches, or more appropriately, lack thereof.  She shuddered under the magical caress, feeling her own magic pool against the touch. Letting out a slow breath, she kept focusing on the facts of the mission rather than the body in armor pressed against hers. “Okay.”  
            “I’m good?”   
            “Yeah.”  
            “You’re good?” She got a nod this time. “Then how about letting me go so I can get up?”  
            Rather than respond, Wolf released her with a whine. She rolled onto her back before kicking up to her feet. Offering her hand, Hawk let Wolf pull her off the ground.   
            Hawk reached up, running hand over Wolf’s helmet. The touch wouldn’t mean much physically, but the metaphorical gesture reassured her partner. She couldn’t reach out through their magic like Wolf could, nor could she offer physical touches as readily as Wolf did in public. But there were times when she had to reassure herself that Wolf still stood beside her.  
            “Wonder if there were any more?” Wolf said as she walked through the guts and remaining parts of the krayt.  
            Hawk moved to follow but stopped short. After each confrontation, her mind automatically reviewed the battle, finding the faults and successes. Not much changed from their methods, though having Wolf stuck behind her at the beginning meant a greater need for a quick ending. Their blasters needed little recharge, provided they remained clean and functional. The missiles Wolf used though were not so freely replaceable.  
            “Wolf?” The woman in question was now bent over, moving pieces of burnt krayt flesh and hide with her blaster.  
            “Hmmm?” She flipped one piece before crouching to get a better look.  
            “Was that your last fusion?” Wolf slipped her right blaster back into her holster as she began to move some of the flesh by hand.  Hawk stepped closer, ignoring the squishy feeling beneath her boots. “Wolf?”  
            “Yes, yes,” Wolf said, waving her off. Had she been able to see her face, Hawk knew Wolf would be rolling her eyes.   
            “And what if we needed it later?”  
            “We’ll figure something out,” Wolf said as she slipped whatever she grabbed out of the krayt’s mess.   
            “Pearls?”  Hawk asked, only receiving a nod in return. She turned to look at the lights still dancing down the tunnel. Wolf moved to stand beside her, holstering her other blaster. The tension of the battle began to drain out of her, leaving her weary for the moment. The magic between them swirled for a moment before Wolf reached outward again.  
            Wolf tracked the monsters they sought, while she saw them for who they were.  Maybe things would have been different if they were back at Hogwarts or even just back on Earth. But in this galaxy (and it truly was another galaxy – she checked), their magic warped and shifted from an internal appendage to an external force that channeled through them. Some of their abilities remained, maybe, but without wands or runes or anything of the sort, they were just as normal as the rest of humanity, this galaxy and the next.  
            “Yes,” Wolf said. “And it’s still there.” There was a shake in her voice, but her steps were steady. She never was one to let fear stop her from doing what she thought was right.    
            “It?” Hawk tried to reach out to sense what Wolf saw, but all she felt was her magic twisting in the wind.   
            “Yeah…it,” Wolf said before walking toward the light. Hawk followed, her sight now watching for anything and everything. Fool her once, shame on her, but she never got fooled twice. At least by the same trick.   
            They walked in silence to the light. The tunnel continued in the same direction for another forty-seven-point-eight-six meters before expanding into a cavern. Lanterns hung toward the southern edge where the tunnel picked back up. The light illuminated a makeshift tent with a smoldering campfire just in front of it. They must have been the source of the dancing light.   
            “He was here,” Wolf said. Hawk thrusted out her arm to stop her partner from stepping further.  
            “’Was’ being the operative word,” Hawk said, pointing at foot sticking out from one of the tent’s cloth sides. Wolf inaudibly cursed at the sight.   
            Bounty hunters have a code, really a creed. It may sound strange, especially for people who didn’t know or understand, but they lived by it. They died by it. They bartered by it. The code separated them from the people and the acquisitions. Having a code made it easier for Hawk to deal with things out here. Having rules meant having something to guide her. Wolf followed them because she did, but Hawk thought it comforted her partner to have something that made sense in this galaxy.  Or maybe that was just Hawk projecting onto Wolf.   
            The creed consisted of six guidelines for all reputable bounty hunters. Number one: people don’t have bounties; only acquisitions have bounties. This rule helped to separate the civilians from their targets. They are no longer persons, and it is easier (usually) to focus on capturing or killing them, and not worrying about what brought them there. This lead into the next guideline.  
            Number two: Capture by design; kill by necessity. When it is all said and done, a live bounty was better than a dead one. Often paid more too. You can’t get water from a stone (without magic), and you can’t get information from a dead man.   
            Number three: No hunter shall slay another hunter. This one, and the next, get ‘creatively’ abused more often than Hawk liked to admit. Still, she followed it to the letter, and hadn’t met another hunter who didn’t. There were tales in the cantina about hunters crossing this line, but she’d never witnessed it herself. Hunters dying on a hunt wasn’t uncommon, and cause of death was hard to prove at times (again, only if you didn’t have magic).  
            Number four: No hunter shall interfere with another’s hunt. Unless you have a partner, like her and Wolf, bounty hunters worked alone. That meant a lonely life, but with Wolf, Hawk never felt alone. Still, there were times when hunters worked together to bring down a big acquisition. At this point, number six kicked in.  
            Number five: In the hunt, one captures or kills, never both. Either you take the acquisition in alive or you brought him in dead. Once a hunter grabs their acquisition, if they are still alive then they are brought in that way. Under most circumstances, this isn’t too difficult, but some unscrupulous hunters or even agents from different corporations may step in to shift the acquisition into another plane.   
            Finally, number six: no hunter shall refuse aid to another hunter. Another thing that she admired about bounty hunters: They take care of their own. When they were just starting out, bounty hunters offered them help and tips. None of it was without a price and all prices are negotiable, but they never paid more than their share, and never their bodies. They’d been on both sides of the table for this rule, negotiating for help and negotiating for pay.   
            Altogether, the work offered her some direction when they were without a rudder. It took them nearly a year to settle into this job, but Wolf took to it like a fish to water. Hawk struggled at first with the notion of killing to make money. She eventually found her wings beneath her, even more as her magic adapted to this strange galaxy. Their early debts kept them from getting a ship of their own, but they were finally making enough to strike out and purchase something for the two of them.   
            Wolf walked over to the tent, lifting the flap to stare at the body. “Damn.”  
            “What got him?” Hawk asked, moving to take a look at the body.   
            Alive, Trickler stood just over two meters tall (two-point-zero-one meters to be exact), a gut that peaked over his trousers, and strong legs underneath the large body. His arms bugled with muscles, veins visible from exertion or maybe death. A scar crossed his face from the upper left portion of his forehead all the way down to his neck. His brown shirt stuck to his chest with a blaster scorched cleanly into him. Or what she thought was a blaster. It didn’t look like any close-range burn she’d seen before, but maybe that just meant the killer had new tech.   
            “Double damn,” Wolf said, pointing at hole.  
            “Yeah but…” Hawk turned to look around the cavern. There were no other signs of someone here. The dirt scuffed under the footsteps, presumable of Trickler and the killer. If it was a bounty hunter, they’d take the body or some proof of death with them.   
            “Set up here for the night?” Wolf asked. “He looks like he was planning to hide for a while.”   
            Hawk followed the pointed finger to the crates in the tent. Seven of them on three selves. All lined up neatly. All locked tight presumably. An unslept bed, and a still warm body. Signs of someone living shortly here before dying very quickly and with very little effort. Not by a bounty hunter or another agent. No, this was done without emotion or regard of Trickler. Something felt wrong. “That thing? It still here?”  
            Wolf froze, her movements stuck between standing and crouching next to the acquisition. She turned to look at Hawk, her magic now spreading outward and combining with the external magic within this galaxy. Hawk stepped next to her, lifting up her body as she got lost in her sight. After an eternity of holding armor instead of flesh, she felt the magic recede back into Wolf.  
            “Yes,” Wolf said, her weight dropping into Hawks’ arms completely. “It’s still there. It’s closer, and bigger, and…and…horrible.”   
            They should leave. Their bounty was dead, the shadow still around them. This hunt was wrong from the beginning. “We should leave.”  
            “We can’t.” Wolf turned to look at Hawk, before stepping out of her grasp. “We need to finish this.”              
            “And if the shadow comes here?”  
            “We’ll run,” Wolf said, shrugging her shoulders. She glanced down the body. “Think you can remove the head?”  
            “Wolf,” Hawk groaned. She reached out with her magic, meeting the turmoil flowing through her small body. Fear and anger stoked her storm, but her magic found the calm within the center. Grasping onto that calm, Hawk steadied herself as she contemplated their next move.  
            “Hawk. They’re our friends. They’re counting on us.” Wolf stepped aside, giving Hawk access to the body.    
            Hawk stared at the acquisition, contemplating her choices. Yes, the Jedi were their friends, but friends in need weren’t hard to come by in this galaxy.  Yes, they took on this hunt which was more of a guard duty, but the Jedi stood guard over the queen. The shadow was here too, which meant they were more in danger than the Jedi or queen were.  
            Still, she ignored those thoughts because it was the right thing to do.  
            With a sigh, Hawk knelt beside the body and released the knife from her gauntlet. The hot metal glowed upon release and in one swift motion, the head rolled from the acquisition’s body. Lifting up it up by its scummy hair, Hawk turned to see Wolf offering a bag. Nodding in thanks, she dropped the head into it, leaving Wolf to tie it off and then tie the bag to her belt.  
            What she wouldn’t give a bottomless bag at the moment.   
            “We’ll wait to morning,” Hawk said, taking a step back, pulling Wolf with her. The tent flap dropped back, covering the body once more. “If another hunter doesn’t show up, then we’ll take it and head back into town.”  
            “And…it?” Wolf glanced back around the cavern. Despite wanting to help, whatever the smonster was within the shadows scared Wolf something fierce. Hawk felt her own senses urging forward, attempting to gather more information.  
            “We’ll deal with it if we have to,” Hawk finally said after several long moments of silence.  “Now, let’s set up camp.”  
            The next few hours slipped by in a comfortable silence. They fell into a familiar pattern, setting up their own camp away from the body and near their entrance. They didn’t have sleeping bags or anything, but they wouldn’t be sleeping. Not in the sense they normally could. They were on a hunt, which meant resting in shifts and staying besides one another at all times. Helmets came off, letting them munch on their packed rations. More were left at the speeder, but that was too far back to leave now.   
            Hawk took first shift, letting Wolf slumber against her. One hand on her love, the other on her blaster. She couldn’t reach out with magic like Wolf could, but her eyes saw more than possible. For several hours, she shifted her glances between the two tunnels, silently watching for their acquisition’s killer only to be met with darkness. Wolf woke and convinced her to rest as well, this time in her arms.   
            It was in those arms that shook her away. “It’s coming.” Wolf’s whispered voice echoed through her helmet. Her voice was steady, hidden by the helmet and hidden from her fear.  
            Hawk snapped to attention, standing up quickly and drawing her blaster. With her free hand, she slid her helmet on, the HUD lighting up briefly as she surveyed her surroundings. Trickler’s fire had long since gone out, but embers still danced in theirs. Just enough to provide some light in the darkness, but not enough to see anything approaching. Still, she swung to face the darkness. Tapping into her magic, she strained to see the shadow coming to them in the dark.   
            “Where?” Hawk asked. Wolf turned to the tunnel away from there, her blasters pointed into the dark.   
            Wolf’s response died on her lips as a red light burst through the darkness. The sound of the laser igniting echoed around them. The red saber swung in the dark several times, taunting them to attack. This close, she felt the evil rolling off the shadow in waves. Her magic rebuffed against it, shielding her as best as it could. Still, a fear filled her gut at the sight of the shadow gaining form.  
            “Fu-“ Her curse cut off as the saber moved toward them with unearthly speed. She fired off several green bolts at the red-skinned monster only to have them deflected away.   
            Even at his speeds, her eyes followed the beast. A Zabrak with red-skin and black tattooes swung the red light. He wore a black cloak, aiding him in creating the shadow façade. He moved with the ease of a dancer, swiftly moving forward even as he deflected every single one of their shots. Wolf bounded off to the side, her red bolts trailing behind the fleeing Zabrak.   
            Hawk caught the flick of his wrist as he pointed at something behind her. She ducked in time for a larger boulder to go sailing past her. She returned the attack with one of her own, sending her own shot back. A rail bolt flew from her gauntlet at the Zabrak, only for him to dodge again even as he deflected several of Wolf’s shots.   
            The Zabrak charged Wolf, his ghastly image growing larger as he swung the red blade. The fear pooling inside Hawk threatened to bubble over at the sight of the charging monster at her partner. Tracking the movements, she fired off several rounds from her blaster even as she aimed her grappling hook. The bolts reflected off, one of them slamming back into her. She grunted under the pain, ignoring it as she finally finished the calculations in her head and fired off the hook.   
            As the Zabrak swung his blade at Wolf, the hook pierced his side. He screamed in agony as Hawk tried to pull him to her. The only reward for her efforts were a shudden burst of magic directed at her, sending her careening into the wall.   
            She slammed against the cave wall, pressed backward by an unnatural force. Her limbs felt crushed under the strain of the Zabrak’s efforts. With one hand he kept deflecting Wolf’s shots even as she crushed her entire body. The crushing sensation quickly added invisible fingers wrapping around her neck.   
            Hawk struggled against it, willing her arms to work against the force. Her fear quickly grew to anger, silently threatening the monster trying to kill her. She silently screamed. Her magic echoed that scream outward only to be swallowed by the shadow of the beast. Except it all was for naught. The darkness of the Zabrak’s shadow pushed aside her magic as he tightened his grip on her. Her blaster fell limply from her fingers as she struggled to fill her lungs. The anger faded back into fear as she caught the yellow eyes glowing in the dying embers of their campfire.  
            Those eyes glared at her, willing her to die even as a darkness slowly filled her vision. With the last ounces of energy and magic, Hawk reached toward Wolf. She wasn’t ready. This couldn’t be the end. Not without saying goodbye, or telling Wolf she loved her one more time. It just couldn’t.


	8. Better Part of Valor

            Wolf froze for a one horrifying moment. The shadow monster moved with the Force, bleed it, and scarred the ground it walked on with its red saber. All the motions, all that evil, was now directed at Hermione. Her heart stopped when she saw Hawk knocked off her feet and flung to the wall. It crushed when Hawk remained there, her armor cracking under the strain of evil the monster exuded. And it damn near tore in two as she felt Hermione reaching out to her in the only way she could.

            Only moments before she thought she was going to die, but Hawk fired off her grappling hook at the monster. The hook struck the beast’s side, piercing the flesh. It gave an unearthly wail before using the hook to jump toward Hawk. After that…after that Wolf’s heart stopped for an agonizing second before her brain caught up to her body’s movements.

            Shadows danced around the monster in the dying embers of the campfire. Even worse, the Dark Side reached out as tendrils, grasping for anything to hold in its grip. Wolf felt the tendrils as they held Hawk tight, squeezing the life and the light out of her.

            Tears in her eyes, Wolf unleashed her a payload of missiles at the monster. She fumblingly tapped every button on her gauntlet, her head-up-display locking immediately onto the evil before her. Her body rocked in pain as the missiles and bombs left her gauntlet, her backpack shuddered as each left with a righteous fury lit beneath them. Smoke followed her Hail Mary, carrying her prays and her last efforts.

            The missiles swarmed the monster, trails of fire and smoke spinning through the cavern. Some the monster managed to deflect, sending them careening off into the cave walls. Some were stopped in the air, as if the evil the monster exuded shielded him in return for its depravity. Others blew up upon impact with its saber. But there were too many for it. Counting the ones that blew up in the monster’s face, several landed, burning it. The monster roared, in agony or maybe rage. Either way, it lost its concentration and Hawk fell to the ground in a thud.

            The monster’s screams sent shivers through her. Wolf shored up her mental shields with anger and strength, daring him to take her last thing from her.  The shields held, breaking the torrential winds carried through the Force, but they held firm. They had to if she wanted to save Hawk.

The monster stumbled forward, glaring at her with basilisk eyes, except she did not freeze or turn to stone. She glared back, daring it to try and strike at the things she cared for most. The shadow stalked toward her, its power in the Force grasping at her from all directions. Wolf moved as quickly as she could, circling the cavern as the monster continued its warpath to her and running from the Dark Side the monster unleashed.

            Her feet pounded along the rocky floor as she dodged rocks and rubble being sent her way. She felt the Force reach out to her, moving between them as she ran. It filled her, pushing out the storm of fear and anger at the monster’s murderous actions while creating a calm in the center of the hurricane of evil swirling around her. Her heart pounded along with her steps, but the fear fell away. Her anxiety remained, but the Force, the magic that guided her entire life reached out to her for once instead of her reaching to it.  In her hour of need, her minute of crisis, the faith she placed in the one thing wondrous about her life returned that faith.

            Reaching Hermione’s side at an impossible speed, Wolf stumbled over anxious steps and landed on her knees. The pain barely registered as her gauntleted fingers fumbled to find something soft to touch. “Mia?” Her hand brushed against Hawk’s helmet, trying not to let her emotions boil over. The painted hawk on the helmet had cracked under the supernatural pressure the monster exerted. The cracks carried on throughout her armor with some of the outer shell shattered beyond repair. Wolf tore off her right gauntlet and reached for the cloth underclothes visible at Hawk’s neck.

            The Force protected her for the moment between when she left her back open to the monster and she attempted to find Hawk’s pulse. The moment stretched through the future and beyond the past, and in that moment, Jenna felt every painful goodbye with Hermione she ever had. All the close calls. All the missed moments at Hogwarts. All the stolen glances. Everything that was Jenna Potter attached itself to Hermione Granger that first year at Hogwarts. Everything that was Wolf attached itself to Hawk. Everything she stood to lose bled into the Force as she waited for the smallest response.

            And beneath her bare finger, the faintest hint of a pulse pushed through Hawk’s battered skin.

            Before she could make a decision, Wolf felt the warning through the Force, a twinkle just outside her perception. Twisting in the dark, she fired off several rounds as she turned for face the red and black maelstrom. Her aim was wide, but the sudden response shifted the monster onto its heels. She moved to her knees, turning slightly to face the shadow completely.

            The red blade spun around as it deflected more and more bolts. She let loose a series of shots, unloading the bolts in fast succession. Most of the bolts slipped through the spinning ward but a few deflected off the red blade. Her attack did nothing to lessen the monster’s approach, nor did it even slow it down. The few missiles that managed to it earlier burned its flesh, charring some of the dark tattoo and making it appear fierce in the dying embers of the campfire and its own burning amber eyes. The black skin spread from its intricate design to cover half of the right side of its face, making its eyes appear even deeper in the shadow.

            Wolf thought she caught glimpses of the possible futures through the Force. Whispers of Hermione’s disbelief in divination echoed through her even as Wolf continued her worthless barrage. She had nothing left but the blasters in her hands – almost all her missiles, and she would completely accept Hawk’s ‘I-told-you-so’ if they survived this.

            When they survived them.

            The monster closed the distance in incredible speed. The dirt and dust on the ground spread up around him as the shadow spread its storm. This close, Wolf saw a possible chance and raised her blasters to unload another round and –

            The monster swiped his free hand away from him, directing it off into the darkened cavern. A telekinetic burst of the Force ripped Wolf’s blasters from her hands, sending them tumbling down the path they didn’t take. Along with her blasters, Wolf felt her own connection with the Force shudder under the onslaught of the shadow’s control.

            Reaching back with one hand to cover Hermione, Wolf raised the other to shield herself when the word came to her. Instinctive or not, magic or not, Wolf let her fears and attachment guide her to an action and spoke one word:

            “Expelliarmus!”

**I0I**

Silence was golden, or so some chose to believe. Padme prescribed to a different philosophy: To sin by silence, when one should protest, makes cowards of all men. Her rule as monarch of Naboo meant knowing when to use her voice and when to observe. When to remain silent, and when to offer protest. Often she spent hours listening to her advisors. Never speaking, never offering more than a nod. Only when she needed to make herself be heard, to speak the truth that she raised her voice and spoke with the weight of authority granted to her by the people.

            It was that authority which allowed her to push through political reforms, fulfilling the promises she made during the election. The entire political landscape of changed as a result of those reforms, and already whispers of a third term even when she hadn’t finished her first were reaching her office (not that she would seek a third term, but the support from the people meant a great deal to her). Those same reforms included economic changes, no doubt angering the guilds. But never in her wildest dreams did she expect that the Trade Federation would take arms against her peaceful people. Arms holding them hostage and trying to destroy the very fabric of their culture.

            Even without the cloak of authority, she still carried the voice of the monarchy on Tatooine, and yet, speaking out against the Jedi’s eyes earned her nothing except platitudes for patience. Yes, she may be young, younger than the Jedi’s Padawan learner, but she was the monarch of her people. They trusted her to help them and she fled. She had every intention of returning, but the Republic needed to hear her pleas for her planet. To remain silent was unthinkable.

            The silence of her thoughts broke against the chatter of her friends. Her handmaidens/body doubles/friends buzzed about the hangar, talking excitedly of the podrace broadcast that finished only a few hours before. A race she attended alongside Master Jinn and the young pilot’s mother, Shmi. The older woman was a kind hostess, offering them much in exchange for so little. When this crisis was over, she mentally planned a return trip to Tatooine. Maybe even buy Shmi and Anakin’s freedom. It would be the least she could do for everything they did for the waylaid group. Especially in light of Anakin winning and ensuring their departure from the Outer Rim.

            Obi-Wan was supposed to attend with them, but there was a change in plans it seemed. Instead, he stayed at the hanger. Apparently, his “brooding gaze” attracted the attention of her handmaidens if the gossip fluttering about was to be believed. Padme was more concerned with what necessitated the change rather than how the man looked.  

            Padme’s surprise at Anakin winning was only surpassed by the Jedi betting her ship to enter them. She tried to talk to both Jinn and Obi-Wan about it, and while Obi-Wan offered more insight and support for her position, both spoke about it in the same way: The Force would take care of them.

            Now, Padme understood the Force, and was even tested for potential training as a babe – something her mother quietly confided in her as she was running for Queen. Maybe the Force did work in mysterious ways, and guided them to the correct outcome (or a beneficial one at least). It still did not excuse the Jedi acting as if they had the right to make decisions without at the very least consulting her. Had Jinn spoken to her before he made the offer, maybe she wouldn’t feel so frustrated with them.

            It was as a result that frustration that prompted a desire to speak to Hawk about it. She appeared disgruntled with the Jedi, maybe even worse, but the older girl wasn’t there at the moment. Neither was Wolf. They hadn’t returned from their bounty, and although Obi-Wan said they were before mid-day, part of her agonized over the choice she would need to make. Mid-day passed, and now they were in the final preparation of leaving Tatooine. Master Jinn returned to settle some accounts with Watto, leaving the rest of them to wait at the hanger.

            With the installation of the new hyperdrive being near completion and testing about to begin, there was only a few hours at most left before they needed to leave. Standing as close to the hangar open as her security forces would allow, she kept watch for both Master Jinn and the two bounty hunters.

            “Milady?” Padme startled at the soft, accented voice. She turned to the source, a hand over her heart to see the slight grin on Obi-Wan’s face. No doubt repayment for the buckets of sand she threw at him. “We are finishing the final tests now. It would be best if you return to your quarters.”

            “And your Master?” She asked, though she caught Obi-Wan’s eyes flickering beyond her and onto something out of the hangar. She turned to look but only saw the busy streets and people.

            “On his way,” he said. “It appears we have taken on a passenger.”

            Padme stopped looking at the streets, trying to pick out what Obi-Wan’s gaze saw but all she recognized were the average people hustling about their lives. Instead, there was something about his words… “Annie?

            Obi-Wan didn’t quite grimace but it was a close thing as he nodded. “Qui-Gon was able to secure the boy’s freedom.”

            “And what of his mother’s?” Obi-Wan’s pause was enough of an answer. “Why? Why him and not her? Why him and not some other slave?” She tried to kept her anger in check, holding back more questions.

            “My Master feels that Anakin has a gift in the Force,” Obi-Wan answered after he spent time gathering her words. “He plans to present the boy to the Council in hopes of training him.”

            Padme raised an eyebrow at the information. “I thought…I thought he was training you?”

            “He is,” Obi-Wan said, smiling slightly. But there was a sadness in the smile she wasn’t used to see in the otherwise serene Jedi. “I do not think that Qui-Gon has determined what he will say to the Council yet. All I know is he believes the boy to be important.” He returned his gaze to the street, his eyes narrowing at something.

            Padme snorted and turned to follow his stare. She still saw nothing, and when she opened her mouth to say something, a hand pulled her aside. Obi-Wan back-peddled, pulling her out of view from the hangar entrance.  “What…?”

            She didn’t need a response as a speeder flew into the hangar.  It wobbled under its pressure, smoke curling from its engines. The rider fell off, and only then did it become obvious there were two people on board. Two people wearing burnt armor. The speeder continued on to hit the wall, shattering into parts and more smoke. The small explosion briefly stole her attention before she turned back to the two people.

One knelt next to the other, armor broken in places and covered in soot and sand. The other lay on the ground, appearing as broken as the one still standing. The black hair of the kneeling girl gave away her identity, but if it hadn’t the painful cries that followed quickly would have.

            “Somebody!” Wolf’s screamed echoed from the hanger. “Please! Help me!” Her voice pleaded and broke as her hands moved over the other body. They began to glow a light shade of blue, the light shifting and shaping over the body at Wolf’s feet until the light encompassed the body -  no, until it encompassed Hawk.

            Padme took off toward them, vaguely noticing Obi-Wan still standing at the entrance. She skidded to a stop in an effort to back to wave to him to help, only to receive a shake of his head. “Help them.” He nodded toward Wolf, and now that she was closer, Padme saw the battered body of Hawk. Her helmet missing, her armor nearly crushed, but she recognized the lithe features and short brown hair. Obi-Wan turned back to the entrance, dropping his cloak elegantly off his shoulders as he drew his lightsaber.

            The blue blade - a color not unlike the light exuding from Wolf’s hands - burst from the saber and in an acrobatic leap, Obi-Wan moved down the street. Moving at speeds she couldn’t comprehend, Padme watched the blue sliver flicker through the street to two sets of dancing slivers further down. One was green, the other red. The slivers flickered in and out of focus and within seconds, a blue blade joined them in the dance before blurring together into a mirage.

            Wolf’s cries drew her back to the present. She hurried to the bounty hunter’s side even as her handmaidens rushed down the yacht’s ramp. Kneeling across from Wolf, Padme stared at the blood still seeping from beneath the armor.

            Hawk lay bruised and nearly broken before her. She looked like she’d been tossed around, her body treated like a rag doll. The armor splintered at several places. Disjointed parts stuck out, no doubt cutting into the skin beneath it. Some red leaked from the armor, pooling on the ground. Wolf continued to do what she did, the blue light seeping out of her hands and into Hawk’s frail body. Calling to mind some of the training she received from

            “We need to get this off her,” Padme said more to herself than anyone else. She reached for the sides of the armor, ignoring the blue now covering her hands as well. She felt the Force through the light, an experience unlike anything she ever dreamed of before. A warm rushed through her body and filled her with such hope that it brushed aside the paralyzing fear. Was this what the Jedi felt whenever communing with the ancient entity?”

            Ignoring how own questions, Padme set to work. She carefully found the brackets holding the armor together, and evidently it was the other only thing holding the armor in one piece. Once she unlocked the set of brackets on her side, the lack of tension broke the bounty hunter’s armor. The shards of plasteel fell away from Hawk’s body, revealing a black shirt stained a darker colour.

            One of her handmaidens handed her some gauze, and Padme glanced at the her. She nodded her thanks at Rabe even as she applied pressure to Hawk’s side. The blue light dulled even more but continued to cover Hawk’s chest. Wolf’s whispered prayers continued as they worked to keep the faint pulse steady at the very least, if not bring her back to the living.

            “Here.” The owner of the voice handed her a bacta-injector. Without looking up, Padme took the injector to help stop some of the worst. Dropping the bloody gauze, she slid the injector along the still leaking wound. The clear gel squirted out, covering jagged wound even as blue light tried to mend her. Slipping a clean gauze over the gel, Padme continued to apply pressure. She looked up at the owner of the voice, Eirtae, and nodded in thanks.

            “We need to get her inside,” Padme said. She caught the eyes of her three handmaidens, offering them a smile and a mouthed thank you. The girls moved around Hawk, even as Captain Panaka hurried over to them. A glance at his direction of travel offered some insight into his whereabouts.

            “We need to take off,” he said, his drawn blaster held at his side.

            “Then let us get her inside,” Padme said, letting her authority leak into her voice. Together, they lifted Hawk up, holding her steady just to slip a spine board beneath her. They quickly strapped her in, taking care to avoid the wound on her side. The bacta held, and even still some of the color slowly seemed to be returning to Hawk’s grey features. Once the board was in place, they each took a handle and slowly stood, taking Hawk with them. Wolf’s hands followed first, and only once Padme and her handmaidens held her up did the other girl stand.

            Together, they walked slowly up the ramp and headed down the corridors of the Royal Starship. Reaching the same room Wolf healed her in, Padme directed them to the elongated couch. It served as a makeshift bench when Wolf attended her, and right now would offer them a place to continue to help Hawk – though how much help they could give was unknown. There were no supplies onboard, and what little bacta they had may not be enough to heal Hawk. Stepping back, Padme let Wolf take over, though stayed close to offer what help she could.

            “Captain,” she said. Panaka hurried to her side from his spot by the door. “Once the Jedi are on-board, take off.”

            “Right away,” he said, leaving the crowded room to begin the pre-flight check.

            Wolf hovered above Hawk, the blue light that seemed so bright earlier now a pale imitation continued to coat the wounded hunter. Without any proper equipment, it would be impossible to detail any internal damage. The Royal Starship didn’t even have medical droid, and seemed to carry even less supplies. Something she planned to rectify once they returned to civilization. Still, she glanced around for the bag Wolf used when patching her up. Finding it near the foot of the couch, Padme began to go through it, hoping for something to help.

            “Milady, there is someone here to see you,” Sabe said. Her voice was softer than she knew, more hesitant.

            “Not right now.” Padme found several more bacta patches as well as a scanner. Taking both from the bag, she turned slightly to see Anakin standing at the doorway with Sabe by his side. He ducked his head, looking so much smaller and younger than she thought. Part of her wanted to wrap him in a hug, and for a moment she considered it, but memories of her time with the relief organizations pushed her training forward.  “Annie…” She didn’t know what to offer him, and while sweet that he wanted to see her, now wasn’t the time. “Sabe, please get him situated in the lounge. And buckled up.”

            “Yes milady,” the handmaiden said, nodding even as she guided Anakin from the room. The saddest pair of eyes she’d ever seen continue to watch her until the boy finally moved away from the door. Padme sighed and pushed the feelings aside to focus on helping Hawk.

            Stepping to Wolf’s side, Padme turned the scanner on and raised to over Hawk’s body. Moving slowly, she started scanning at the top of Hawk’s head. She gave the scanner time to catalog as much of the damage to the bounty hunter’s body as possible.  She shuffled around Wolf, doing her best not to touch the still faintly glowing girl, before continuing on with the scan.  By the time she reached Hawk’s feet, she felt the ship begin to take off.

            Whatever needed to be resolved must have been, and hopefully not another attempt by the Trade Federation to end their journey to Corsucant.  Padme turned her attention to the scanner in her hands. It took several tries to bring up the cataloged information. She wasn’t familiar with the device and quite honestly impressed with herself for actually collecting something. When an outline of a body appeared, showing only minor red lines – including one where on Hawk’s left side where the bacta held it together, Padme let out a sigh of reflect. No buzzing, beeps, or wailing sirens. Everything looked stable.

            “Wolf,” Padme said, placing her hand on the bounty hunter’s shoulder. Wolf shrugged it off, and the blue light flared around Hawk.  She felt the power surround Wolf, like the bounty hunter was threatened by something, by Padme even. Sabe caught her glance, shaking her head. She must have felt whatever the burst from Wolf was too. Was it instinctive for her to react that way? Was it a protective measure for Hawk or herself? Padme didn’t know the answers, and really the bounty hunters potentially knew more of what was occurring than she did. An issue for another time. Right now, she needed Wolf to at least try to look at her. “Wolf, she’s going to be okay.”

            “You don’t know that,” Wolf choked out.

            Padme held up the scanner, praying it said what she thought it did. The brokenness in Wolf’s voice was something she didn’t know if she ever wanted to experience or even see someone else experience. She tried not to think about Naboo and her people, and all the brokenness left to them. “Yes. I do.”

            Wolf’s eyes flickered up to the scanner and back down to the Hawk’s still body several times before she finally saw the image. The light around Wolf’s hands slowly began to fade away before disappearing all together. Taking the scanner from her, Padme watched Wolf tap something out, her free hand going to Hawk’s neck. Silence filled the room, before a soft steady beeping broke it. The steady sound of a strong heartbeat – Hawk’s heartbeat.

            Padme started to smile, only for it to slip away as Wolf began to sway. Eirate helped her keep Wolf standing while Rabe appeared from somewhere with a chair. Wolf never even noticed them lowering her into it. Her emerald eyes remained locked on Hawk, her grip on the beeping scanner.

            “How about we clean up you now too?” Padme asked, getting Wolf to nod at least. She moved slowly to give Wolf time to stop her, but the bounty hunter remained still. Padme was soon joined by Rabe and Eirate as they worked on the clamps holding the pieces of armor together. The breastplate broke into several pieces, not quite unlike Hawk’s had when they removed it. Care not to cut Wolf or herself, Padme took the pieces away and left her handmaidens to remove the rest of her chest armor.

            “She needs bacta too,” Rabe whispered to Padme as she brought over several more pieces of shattered armor.

            “There are a few more patches,” Padme whispered back, glancing at the still Wolf. The bounty hunter’s hand clamped around the scanner, the soft beeping flooding the room. “But if you can, find another scanner.”

            “There may be something with the security forces,” Rabe said before handing Eirate the bacta patches she found. “I’ll speak to Captain Panaka.” She then left them to continue to care for Wolf.

            Much like Hawk, Wolf wore a black set of underclothes. Her shirt matted to her body, though without removing it, Padme could only speculate if it was blood or sweat on the cloth. The few tears in the shirt indicated the latter. “We need to remove your shirt. Eirate.” Her handmaiden went to the door to give them some more privacy. It would also allow them to a thorough examine of Hawk, though given the magical healing Wolf imbued into her partner, it was probably not even necessary. “You ready?”

            Wolf nodded at Padme’s question, tacitly relaxing as she slowly removed the shirt. Doing her best not to blush, Padme took stock of the visible injuries. Bruises covered her torso, along with an ugly looking rash that stretched down Wolf’s back on her left side. There weren’t as many cuts on as Hawk had, but there were older scars crisscrossing on Wolf’s back. Something…medieval tore into Wolf’s flesh and only time healed them. Biting back the bile in throat, Padme started to cover the rash with the few patches left.

            Rabe’s muffled voice cried from the other side of the door. “No – you can’t – stop!”

            Looking up from the rudimentary medical care, Padme immediately stepped in front of Wolf’s body, blocking in front the intruder. “You can’t be in here.”

            “I must speak with them,” Qui-Gon said, ignoring her as he stepped closer.

            “No.” Padme caught his arm and pulled back, or rather she tried to. She had neither the strength or the power in the Force to stop him, but she was tired of Jedi overstepping. “What do you think you’re doing?”

            “I need to speak with them about the person who followed them,” Qui-Gon said when she moved in front of her again. He gave her a parental almost condescending look. “We must know who he is.”

            “You _must_?” Padme crossed her arms and met his look with a glare. “You _must_?”

            “It is of grave importance that – “

            “The only thing happening is letting them rest,” Padme said as she pushed him backward. Qui-Gon stumbled a bit, but remained upright. His eyebrows arched in response and his mouth opened as if to speak again. “Get out!”

            “Your Highness, please understand –“

            “I understand perfectly!” She nearly screamed. She pushed him again, this time at least getting him closer to the doorway. “You Jedi think you can make choices about our lives, make the decisions and then run off like nothing has happened! Who gave you that right?” Qui-Gon held up at hand to try and stop her, but at the moment, all she saw was the hand-waving thing they did. The one where they made you change your mind. She grabbed the hand, letting her fingernails dig into his skin as hard as they could. He winced in pain, giving her a small sense of vindication. “We asked for your help, not for you to solve the problems. We wanted your opinions, not for you to answer everything.”

            Qui-Gon glanced down at the fingers digging his hand. Gently, he pried them off, before dropping both of his hands to his side. “We – I only acted in a manner that I thought would get us back to Corsuscant.”

            “And without consulting us. Would you have done so on the station? Make a decision for my planet without saying a word to us?”

            “No, your Highness. The Jedi –“

            “The Jedi sit in their ivory tower, watching over us like little children,” Padme snapped back.   

            “That is not our intention,” Qui-Gon said. “We only want to help resolve things peacefully.”

            “And yet you barge in here like you are owed answers. Tell me, what purpose does bringing Anakin along serve?” She hissed, the questions plaguing her tumbled from her lips. “What purpose was betting my ship? Would you have wagered my life if the Force told you to?”

            Qui-Gon rose to his full height at her question. “Your Highness, I never would do such a thing. And I do not have to answer to you about my actions. I have done my best to protect you and will continue to do so.”

            “The only one threatening us right now is you,” Padme said, slipping into her royal voice as she shoved him again. The words caught him more off guard than the shove, but both gave her the leverage to force him out of the room. Qui-Gon stumbled backward, hitting the bulkhead with a thud.  Stepping into the doorway, she glared at him again. “When we arrive on Corsucant, Hawk and Wolf will be ensured medical treatment at our discretion. They are now under our protection and are members of our security detail until such time they decide otherwise.”

            Qui-Gon stared at her, not speaking but not afraid. He finally nodded, though Padme wondered if it was truly in acceptance or even if he understood what he tried to take from her. She was the Queen of her people, and not one would demand anything of her. Not the Federation, not the Jedi.

            “Master, we still need to submit a report to the council.” Obi-wan’s accented voice broke the still standoff between them, drawing their attention to his spot just a few steps from the doorway. “We can still let them rest and ask for what happened once they are healed.”

            “Right,” Qui-Gon said. He pushed himself upright, nodding at Obi-Wan’s words. He then turned to her before bowing slightly. “Your Highness, I apologize if my actions have offended you.”

            “But you would do so again,” Padme continued the sentence for him. His wordless affirmation did nothing to quell the uneasiness settling in her. “Very well. We shall speak before we land.” She caught Obi-Wan’s eyes for a moment before turning back to the room. He glanced away, ashamed and embarrassed at his Master’s actions. That he spoke up at all told her something about his character.

            What that something was, she hadn’t decided yet. For now, she needed to help Wolf and Hawk. She couldn’t help her planet, her people, but she could help these two strangers who seemed to be going along for the ride. Maybe when Hawk woke they could speak of things, of why they are helping and why the Jedi were so interested in both of them.

            Padme shut the door behind, not locking it as Sabe was still out there. She must be attending to Anakin, and if it kept the boy out of trouble and out of their hair, then for the moment, that was fine. She’d even ask Sabe her perspective of the boy. Maybe hearing about him from someone other than a Jedi might provide a clue as to why the boy felt so important.

            In the commotion, Artoo snuck into the room. One of his mechanical arms held out a tray of bacta patches and other medical tools. Where he found them, she wasn’t sure, but she was thankful for the little droid’s loyalty. She ran her hand over its domed top, patting it softly in thanks before taking a few of the patches. Without knowing what the other tools did – and none of them looked like a scanner – Padme worried she’d exacerbate any problems Wolf had instead of healing them.

            “Thank you,” Wolf whispered when Padme came back to her side. Rabe stepped to her side, moving slowly and softly.

            “For what?” Padme took the scanner Rabe offered her, working as quietly as she could. She moved it over Wolf’s body, watching as the tension that racked through Wolf lessened. The bounty hunter’s grip on the chair eased up before her fingers clenched into a fist briefly before unclenching completely.

            “I couldn’t – I didn’t want to deal with that right now,” Wolf said. Her black hair fell down to cover her face as she stared at the still beeping scanner in her hand. “I was here before you know?”

            Padme continued the scan, trying to not glance at the developed young woman’s bared assets. It had been years since she needed to call on the medical training she received as part of the relief corps, but Wolf’s odd question helped distract her from the awkwardness of the situation. “What do you mean?”

            “At her bedside,” Wolf said, finally releasing her hold on the scanner. She placed it on the couch next to Hawk before lifting one hand into her own. She held onto Hawk with one hand and caressed the top of her hand with the other. “I was twelve, and she’d just been attacked by…by a basilisk.”

            “A basilisk?” She’d never heard that word before, though it was possible that it was a shared myth from their home planet, wherever that was. Padme tried not to think about it too much, but if Wolf was talking that meant at least she wasn’t in shock. The scanner showed nothing broken – thankfully – but some of the bruises moved beyond just muscle and her ribs may be cracked. “Does it hurt to breath?”

            “A giant snake that could kill you with its gaze,” Wolf said as she shook her head in response to Padme’s question.  “But if you look at it through a reflection, you just get turned to stone.”

            “Turned to stone? You mean paralyzed?” Padme asked. Turning to ask Rabe for something, she was met with an outstretched hand holding a grey tunic. Mouthing a ‘thank you’ to her handmaiden, Padme turned back to Wolf.

            “No,” Wolf said with a shake of her head. “I mean literally turned to stone. You needed a special potion – medicine – recover. That took a while to brew so Hermione just lay there. For months. And I couldn’t do anything.” She let out a shuddering breath, her shoulders hitching, but no tears fell.

            “You did everything,” Padme said. She wanted to ask if Hawk was Hermione, how all this was possible. There were so many questions, but unlike Qui-Gon, she had enough sense not to voice those questions now. There would be time for that later. “Now let’s get you covered up, and then we can check your legs. That armor probably isn’t too comfy either.”

            Wolf finally tore her gaze from Hawk to look at the bundle of cloth. “Yeah… she wouldn’t want me to… yeah.” Wolf tugged the tunic over her bruised skin. The bottom of the tunic rested at her hips, covering her enough to at least preserve some of her modesty. Before Padme could ask, Wolf began to remove the broken armor plates along her legs. She handed them off, barely noticing the others in the room as she worked. Within a few minutes, her armor was a rubble in the corner of the room.

            “Anything hurt?” Padme asked. She raised the scanner to start but Wolf waved her off.

            “No, I just…I just need to rest,” Wolf said.

            “We’ll leave you to it then.” Padme glanced back at her handmaidens. “Maybe even bring up some food?”

            “Not hungry, but thanks. And thanks,” Wolf said.

            “We’ll talk later,” Padme said, patting the older girl on the shoulder. “Artoo, you’ll stand guard?” The droid beeped an affirmative before twirling in spot to face the door. Padme motioned for her handmaidens to leave first, before following them out. She glanced back over her shoulder to see Wolf climb onto the couch to wrap herself around Hawk. Artoo briefly moved from his station, finding a blanket from somewhere to offer them. Nodding in approval, Padme left and closed the door behind her.

            “Your Highness?” Sabe’s voice brought her attention to the Jedi standing at the end of the hallway.

            “We should head to our quarters,” Padme said as she turned back to her handmaidens. “If the Jedi still wish to speak after we’ve cleaned up, then we will meet them to hear their questions.”

            There were times when she hated the voice of authority and the manner of speech necessary for political interactions. It sounded pompous and demeaning, but the subtlety of words often had their own power – something she hadn’t learned fully until becoming the Queen. What she said or didn’t say reverberated through her people. Her choices mattered because it impacted all of her people, and maybe even all of Naboo. Or at least the ones who lived on the surface, as the Gungan held court in their underwater cities.  The thought had potential, as

            “Also, please have Jar Jar there as well. We wish to speak about his people.” Padme hid her smile at the gobsmacked appearance now covering Qui-Gon’s face. He may not be used to the casual dismissal, but he needed to know she wouldn’t be bullied anymore. Just because the Naboo believed in peace and they held a very limited security force was not cause for others to attack them or were unable to defend themselves.

            Words were the choice of weapon on Naboo. Great debates lasting hours sometimes were broadcast on the planet. Discussions over meanings and philosophies guided their principles. Bloodshed wasn’t necessary to attack someone, and sometimes words dealt more damage. It was unfortunate that others chose to escalate things, which may have been the source of this conflict.

            Initially, the Trade Federation attempted to negotiate with them directly. When those negotiations failed to bring about the outcome they desired, they left – at first. Naboo was unprepared for the siege unleashed on her planet, and only by a stroke of luck or the will of the Force were they able to send a message to the Senate before their communications were cut off completely. It was hoped that the Senate appointed negotiations, the Jedi in this case, would be able to end the attack, but the Trade Federation had other plans.

            Now, they flew to Corsucant in hopes to convince the Senate to side with her. Hopefully Senator Palpatine would assist them, but his communications over the last few months indicated a level of corruption that worried her. At the time, the worries remained distant as Naboo had no need for intervention from the Senate, but now that they needed them, Padme wondered if the Senate would be able to do anything.

            Hopefully her representative would have better news when they arrived. Until then, she was determined to develop a plan without the need of the Senate’s intervention. At the very least, she would be able to focus on something other than the pain her people were going through, much like helping Wolf and Hawk had. Regardless, there was no more running to be done. With some semblance of a plan for the immediate future, Padme returned to her quarters to clean up and be dressed to receive the Jedi.

            If they wished to speak to her, then the Queen of Naboo would be happy to greet them.

 


End file.
